


Alternate Realities Vol 33 - The War To End All Wars

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [29]
Category: Humans (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-11-01 19:51:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 153
Words: 71,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17873753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: The ship Star Eater is in orbit around Earth 2. Unexpected sings of life on the planet below give Captain Mattie Zero, her fork sister Mattie and the rest of the crew a busy few days.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Fork** : The act of taking a copy of a human or synth consciousness, running is as a new individual in a lookalike or new body.  
>  **Headbump** : Synth to synth talking over WiFi, named after the close contact, low power silent talking seen between Leo and Mia, Max and Fred.
> 
> Dedicated to my late father, Richard George Emery. This work was started while he slept and I waited in A&E. Miss you Dad. Thanks for all the inspiration to get creative and be a maker, whatever the medium.

If Mattie had a stomach it would have been swarming with butterflies right now. Their ship was finally in a high geostationary orbit around Earth 2. With the outer airlock door open she only had to take a single step forwards and she’d start her fall towards the surface many miles below.

Toby chuckles. “So much for you being the badass Mats. Soph’s half way down already!”

“Har frigging har. It’s not a race you knob.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not going to be in the history books as the first to step foot on our new planet. That title went to Tibet.”

“Our fearless Military Unit Synth. So what’s the frigging rush? If you want to jump, jump.”

Toby holds the safety line tighter and leans forwards to see the planet below. “Are we sure Big Mitch’s web is going to hold? If it doesn’t we’ve no way back up without the shuttles. And Zero doesn’t want them touched until..”

Mattie rudely cuts him off. “For frig’s sake Toby! That spider could tow the whole frigging ship with his drag lines if he needed to. Just don’t forget your rope climber and spare power cells as you’re not using mine. See-ya!” Mouth hidden by her suit’s helmet she bites her lower lip and jumps.

She twists to watch the gargantuan ship slowly become a small white blob against the inky blackness of space. “Soph, Big Mitch, Tibet, I’m on my way!”

Tibet was the proverbial brick shit house of a man. Originally a standard MUS clone he’d had a new body built onboard the ship, as had many of his brothers. His original name had been James. All MUS had been a James. A personal name instead of ‘James _insert number_ ’ was much more civilised. 

Mattie liked Tibet. And his brother Nepal.

For an AI he was exceptionally human. In the same way he might consider the Hawkins family pretty exceptional for ex humans. The human race, their biological predecessors, were all long gone now. They existed as documented DNA strands in the ships vast computer, not as living cells. Now the human race existed as nth generation Synths, human like bodies originally designed by David Elster, consciousness having been captured an stored. A lot of tweaking had been done over the years since. One of the best mods was the internal food processor to incinerate anything eaten and derive electrical power from it. A bit like the plug-in hybrid 4 wheel drive SUV she thought she’d driven on Earth. The frigging simulations had been so damned good they all thought they were real. If you were a materialistic sort of person you were probably highly disappointed on waking in a build machine. Mattie’s food processor let her know it was empty.

She spots an orange dot moving in her direction. Moving fast. “Is that you Tobs?”

The dot doesn’t reply, just gets closer and closer. It slowly becomes more identifiable. It was another of the ship’s female crew members. “Yaaaahoooooooo!” It shoots past, arms and legs tucked in for minimal resistance.

Mattie chuckles. “Ruby you nutter!”

“I’m a derivative of the original Mattie Zero, just as you are Mattie!”

“Yeah, I know, I didn’t say I wasn’t!” She holds and arm out to get some drag from the thin upper atmosphere turning her around. “Don’t go too fast, you’ll burn up!”

“I’ve had a backup, if I overdo it you can hit the..” the radio signal is interrupted by a loud noise, digital in nature.

“Ruby? Ruby!” There’s no reply. “Zero? Are you hearing me?” The seconds pass. “Tibet, Soph?” Nothing. “Anyone? What the frig is going on?”

Her suit was feeding back statistics just fine. The air was getting denser, 0.82 percent of Earth’s density at this altitude, her current speed was 62 meters per second and slowing. The external temperature was getting close to 198 degrees. The highly specialised outer layer was doing it’s job nicely. Mia’s non-stick plan, inspired by a non-stick pan.

The noise stops.

“Soph? Mitch? Tibet? Any of you listening?” Mattie’s first drogue parachute deploys automatically. “Come on guys this isn’t funny! Answer!”

The noise returns. Louder than before.

“Suit? Any idea what the noise is?”

“Mattie I’m a low level AI of your creation, based on a fork of the Mr Patches toy Dan created for Sophie. I have no data on which to make a..”

“Fine! Great! Forget I frigging asked! You don’t need to repeat that. Ever. How long before I’m on the ground?”

“An estimated one minute and fifty seconds to the surface.”

Getting into a position that looked more like a sky diver’s pose Mattie adjusts arms and legs, looks around for the X Tibet was supposed to have made on the ground. “I’m not seeing an X yet, are you suit?”

“Scanning.. scanning.. no X detected Mattie.”

“Okay. Keep checking every few seconds please. You don’t need to say anything unless you see something.”

“Understood.”

They’d all been up in the ship watching the planet’s weather patterns. Today had been predicted to be the clearest day this week. There were clouds south of the equator, nothing to the north on this side. “Suit?”

“Yes Mattie?”

“Are you storing the images your seeing?”

“Yes Mattie.”

“Can you run an image difference on what you see now and what you’d seen fifteen seconds ago?”

“No Mattie. I don’t have the code to do..”

“Bluetooth the images please.”

“You weren’t looking?”

“I was focusing on the clouds to the south. Images please! Thank you. Hmm. Do you have the same but in thermal? Thanks. Whoa! The same pair but shifted back a second. Thanks. And another second. There’s our X. Or what remains of it.”

“Where Mattie?”

“Look at the middle of the planet and imagine a point. Travel east until you hit the mainland. If that’s one unit then the X is naught point two units north north east. The largest of the small cluster of islands.”

“I see it now. Why are we not landing on the coast of the mainland?”

“When Big Mitch jumped wind blew him south west. We need to land within walking distance of his line to get back. We don’t know how strong the undercurrents are yet.” The middle of the island below glows red for a second. “Oh crap!”

“Mattie?”

“I think we’re landing on a frigging volcano!” There’s another long loud digital noise. Then after a brief pause another. “What the frig is that noise!”

“Processing.”

Mattie makes microscopic adjustments to leg positions to counteract the drift from the wind. The planet looked beautiful from up here. It was the closest thing to old Earth the deep space scans had found. Of course there’d be sodding volcanoes. On average between 50 and 60 volcanoes erupted each year somewhere on Earth 1 in the early 2000s. By the time they left that was likely to be far higher. She spots a large shape moving under the surface of the water. “Fuck me that’s big!”

“Mattie?”

“I think I’ve just spotted life!”

“Where?”

“One point one units west of the islands. It’s gone now. Any thoughts on the noise?”

“Yes Mattie.”

“Go on then!”

“I don’t have the storage capacity to hold a whole transmission.”

“Transmission?”

“Consciousness transmissions..”

“Whoa whoa whoa! _Consciousnesses_?”

“Yes Mattie. If we are landing on a planet uninhabited by intelligent life, then the source of such a transmission has to be us. There have been four of these bursts. So far Tibet, Sophie, Ruby and Mitch will have been the only ones to reach the surface. 

“Anything in the transmissions that makes you believe that to be the case?” There’s no reply. “Suit? Answer me please!”

“They are not something made by nature. The last transmission was not encrypted and contained thoughts from Ruby.”

“Oh frig! Ruby doesn’t have equipment powerful enough to make such a transmission!”

“No. She doesn’t. Tibet does.”

“Change of plan! We ditch in the water or land on one of the smaller islands.”

“Mattie, from the thermal images the surrounding water is currently close to boiling point.”

“Plan B then!”

~~~

[Chapter-3](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-3-1)


	2. Chapter 2

Sophie shut off pain sensors and watches Mattie’s sky dive. “Don’t land here Mats!”

Ruby tries to free her feet. “It’s like trying to wade through toffee!”

Tibet was almost up to his knees in the stuff, had Big Mitch perched on his head. “Untold trillions of miles and our first step on the planet is like.. help me Sophie.”

“Spending hours getting ready for Prom Night, stepping out of the car at the venue into a big pile of poo?”

“Or vomit.”

“Soph! Can you hear me?”

“Mattie!”

“Suit’s analysed the transmissions we heard, thinks they’re corrupted.”

“Mats! Don’t land here! There’s a weird lava that’s like treacle.”

“Soph, all of you got a recent backup?”

“Um..”

“Soph!”

“Mattie, Ruby is nodding.”

“I know about Ruby. Have you?”

Sophie watches Mattie’s main parachute deploy. “No. Mitch is three days old, Tibet a week.”

“And your backup Soph?”

“I linked with Tibet, he transmitted the changes since my last proper backup.”

“For frig’s sake! When was your last proper backup!”

“Um.. a month. _They take so long_.”

“No they don’t! What was in the transmission attempt?”

“Just the important bits. Things I’d want to remember. Mattie you can’t land here!”

“Maybe I can Soph. Sort of.” Mattie pulls on the parachute controls to turn, heads towards the heavy duty strand Mitch had spun. “That’s one impressive line Mitch!”

“Thanks. I had to carry a lot of supplies to eat on the way down.”

Her radio crackles. “Got much left?”

“A bit. Why?”

Mattie gets ready to wrap her legs around the line. “Just an idea.” Rope climber pulled from her large thigh pocket she gets a hand through the nylon strap at the bottom. “Knowing our luck I’ll fuck up the only chance I have to get..” she crashes into the line, wraps legs and swings the device at the line. There’s a super loud click-click-click as a spring loaded mechanism wraps itself around. “Fucking hell! It worked! Right. Plan C.” She pulls one of the bolts holding the parachute to her spacesuit and lets the parachute flutter off to the side. Pulling on the attached lines to gather it in, it starts dropping towards the lava. “Oh no you don’t!”

Sophie was now stuck fast, the lava having cooled around her feet. “Mattie you can’t save us!”

“Says who?”

Tibet strains to move, all sorts of horrible noises come from his hips and legs. “Mattie you can’t do..”

“Shut up! No such thing as can’t! Mitch, how far can you shoot a web?”

“I’m not Spiderman! My spinnerets are at the opposite end of my body to my head if you hadn’t noticed? I can’t see to aim!”

“There’s always one comedian. Usually it’s Toby or Max. Tibet, how far do you think you could throw Mitch?”

“Throw? As I’m anchored to the ground as solidly as the anchor for his line up to the ship.. quite far I guess?”

“Good.” Mattie finishes pulling the parachute into a bundle. “As I’m turning this ‘chute into a catch net. But not before he’s anchored a new line onto your torso.”

“My torso?”

“Yup. You’re a MUS. You’re armed.”

“I’m armed. I don’t see any enemy?”

“Sure you do Tibet. It’s got your legs in it’s mouth.”

“In.. oh. And how do you propose we free our legs from the beast?”

“I don’t. You’re going to tie a length of Mitch’s best strand around your legs, so tight it stops any synth fluid from circulating. Then you’re going to let Mitch wrap you in web, get a line from you to me. You’re going to fire your weapon at your legs, below Mitch’s line. Only you’ll do that after doing the same for Ruby and Soph. With lines from all three of you with me, Mitch in the net, you’ll fire at the anchor. The tension in the line should rocket us towards the ship frigging fast. We’re synths so won’t black out. Whatever it is about the planet that makes radio only work short distances won’t be an issue by the time we’re half way back. Hopefully he who is a knob will get others helping pull the line in frigging fast.”

Ruby adjusts her helmet’s sun visor and watches her sister. “That’s Plan C? What’s D?”

“You don’t want to know D.”

“Yes I do.”

Mattie sighs. A synth sigh. A fake. “Plan D is death. Tibet shoots us all then self destructs, we all wake up in the build machine, all recent events forgotten.”

“But you’re fine Mattie.”

“Not if it means leaving you four here I’m not! Mitch, got enough materials for enough strands?”

“What’s going to stop them coming off the end of the line?”

“You’ll see. Suit isn’t as dumb as she thinks.”

~~~

[Chapter-4](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-4-1)


	3. Chapter 3

Twelve minutes later Toby jumps as Laura places a hand on his shoulder. “Jesus! You gave me a fright!”

“Zero had the ship check those noises. Something’s gone very wrong down there. They’re partial backups from Sophie, Ruby, Tibet and Mitch. Tibet must have expended a lot of power to transmit at that amplitude.”

“Yeah. Burn your own core out levels. I know I don’t have a gut Mum, but my guts told me not to jump. Seconds later something very large almost surfaced near the island they’re on.”

Laura leans forwards and looks directly down. “So large you could see if from here?”

“Yes Mum.”

“Bloody hell! I wonder if..” her line of thought is cut short by movement in Mitch’s line. “Toby! Something’s happened!”

“No kidding Mum! Zero! Got the ship’s sidewards facing cameras sorted yet or what?”

“We just finished recalibration for near rather than deep space imagery as you requested Toby. What’s up?”

“The line’s gone slack!”

“Shit. How slack?”

“Er, like not anchored at the surface or it’s snapped somewhere sort of slack?”

“Double shit! All available cameras now focusing on the island. Holy frigging shit! You _might_ want to get inside.”

Toby grabs the safety line and looks down. “Hell! Incoming! Bloody fast and straight at us!”

Laura spins him around, not a trivial move in a space suit. “Think! How do we slow them down? If they hit the ship they might punch a hole in it.”

“Nah Mum, the ship’s super strong. They wouldn’t survive the impact. Um.. who’s the best at math onboard?”

The ship’s gargantuan AI personality pretends to clear her throat. “That would be me or Renie.”

“Which V name are you using now?”

“Veronica.”

“Okay Veronica, can you open the inner airlock and cause a big enough gust to slow them down?”

“If the outer airlock was closed down to a small enough aperture to focus the rush of air and pointing in the right direction. We’d have a lot of supplies on the cargo deck go with it. Them being a relatively small size would require a lot of air to have any impact.”

Mattie comes over the radio. “We’ve got a parachute! It’ll be open in a sec! Frigging A! We don’t need quite as much air! Veronica run the numbers!”

“I already have. Toby, Laura, please move aside.” Veronica plays a four note tune over the communications link. “Inner airlock door opening in twenty two seconds. All crew on standby for sudden pressure drop. Medical bay powering up. Injured crew returning.”

Toby grabs his mother’s hand. “Let’s move along the hull a little. I knew we should have used one of the shuttles even if they’re still being modded for remote flying. Told you so Mats.”

Veronica starts a klaxon sound. “Opening inner airlock door in five.. four.. three.. two.. one..”

There’s a noise in space.

To Toby it sounded like an underground train coming into the station. Multiplied by several thousand. “Mum, you okay?”

“I’m fine!”

The two watch the usually impossible. A parachute working in space. Where a vacuum once was air now rushed at the group slowing their approach. A couple of the many lines snap under the strain. Then a third. A few seconds later a forth and fifth. Then the whole parachute rips in two and flails in the wind. Not before it had slowed Mattie, Ruby, Sophie and Mitch enough.

Toby kicks against the hull as the inner airlock closes and wind stops. “Where’s Tibet Mats?”

“If I had blood it would be frigging boiling! He didn’t follow the last bit of the plan, he’s still down there. Help me get Soph and Ruby in.”

He and Laura shift back towards the airlock. “What the hell happened?”

“Frigging lava is what frigging happened! Tibet blasted their legs to get them free, his line to us, then the anchor point. He said having him with us would be too much mass, not give us the same acceleration.”

Laura pounds on the door. “Veronica, outer door open please! How much power does he have left Mats?”

“He’ll be running out any second knowing our luck.”

Toby pulls himself inside. “I’m powering up a shuttle, ready or not.”

~~~

[Chapter-5](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-5-1)


	4. Chapter 4

George had closed the doors to the medical bay just in time. He’d been in there with Niska and Astrid experimenting on something. “Not a word to the others.” He opens the doors back up.

Squeezing her partner’s hand Niska pulls a sweet face. “My lips are vacuum sealed.” She taps the intercom with her other hand. “Veronica, who and how injured?”

“Laura’s just closed the outer airlock door. Sophie and Ruby are missing lower legs. Mitch has spun a sled web and is dragging them to your location as we speak. Why are you in the medical bay?”

“Now’s not the time. I’m here with Astrid and George. What’s the plan?”

“Stabilise them enough for a full backup.”

“Then what?”

“The agreed protocol for such situations.”

Astrid steps towards equipment cabinets pulling Niska along with her. “Build initialisation, a full backup, backup verification, sleep mode, new build confirmation, restore, boot and consciousness confirmation then recycling of the old body. Nothing goes to waste.”

“Correct.”

“My wife helped define the protocol, I should know.” She pulls Niska closer for a kiss. “Why the face Commander Niska?”

“Sophie. Injured. This isn’t how a first trip was supposed to go. I should have been there with..”

“Niska! Stop. The crew were divided. Sending an unmanned shuttle first or seeing the surface in person. And we had no data on a volcano.”

Mattie enters, running fast. “We do now. Mix up a load of fast setting epoxy please George, we’re sealing their leg ends so they don’t lose any more fluid. Their stumps froze in space, now they’re defrosting.”

The hardest of frowns is given to Mattie by Niska. “How’d you manage to get from the airlock to here so fast?”

“I channeled a UCLA gymnast and did an lot of unconventional moves up the stairwell. I’ll let you work out which.”

George gets tubs from a cupboard. “That I’d like to see. Are Sophie and Ruby still awake?”

“Traumatised but awake.”

~~~

[Chapter-6](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-6-1)


	5. Chapter 5

[Chapter-7](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-7-1)


	6. Chapter 6

Laura enters the bridge and scowls at the display filling the wall. “Bloody planets! Earth One tried to kill us, now this one.”

Mattie Zero relaxes in her Captain’s chair. “Bad luck with one volcano doesn’t mean the whole planet is out to get us. Why are you up here?”

“How about not seeing my daughter suffer? She gets a new body and possible memory hack to forget the last few minutes. I’ll remember everything. I’d rather not see any more than I already have.”

Zero’s face remains neutral. “A reasonable reason Mum.”

Laura gets a more central view of the screen from behind the captain’s chair. “Toby said he’d seen something large in the water.”

Renie taps on her console. “This maybe?” Video plays. “We’ve seen shapes like these three times since Toby asked Zero for the camera recalibration.”

“What is it?”

“We don’t have enough data yet. Maybe the shuttle Toby’s taking can get us more?” An alarm pings. “More movement detected.” The screen switches to a live view. “Zooming to maximum. That’s not a single creature. That’s a school of.. whatever they are. Fast moving swimmers for sure. I’d estimate a speed of..” her voice trails off. The screen was dark except for the odd reflection off something’s wet back.

Laura’s jaw drops. “What are we seeing?”

“Something having lunch?”

“But Renie it fills the screen!”

“Yes Laura.” She taps multiple times to zoom out. “Oh my!”

Zero stands. The three women stare at the screen in silence. The large shape Toby had seen was a pod of sea creatures. A similar pod had just suffered most of its members being swallowed in one gulp by something far far bigger. “So much for coming to an uninhabited planet that would support us.”

Renie freezes the display and superimposes a grid. “Permission to swear on the bridge Captain!”

“Permission granted.”

“ _Fucking hell_! It’s like something out of a Godzilla movie! It could swallow ten blue whales with room to spare. If this is in their seas what on Earth is on land?”

The doors of the lift open and David steps out. “Hello Zero, I’ve.. is that what Toby had seen?”

Renie doesn’t turn. “It swallowed what Toby had seen. I’d estimate it to be close to two hundred meters long.”

If David hadn’t perfected whistling while human he sure had as a synth. “I do hope that’s the apex predator. If not there’s something even bigger in there.”

~~~

[Chapter-8](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-8-1)


	7. Chapter 7

Drumming fingers impatiently Toby waits for the inner door to close. Getting the small shuttle into the large airlock had been piss easy with the maglev. He could have pushed it along with his little finger if he’d wanted to. The warning strobe light on the outer door comes on. “In your own sweet time.” He starts running through the preflight checks again, hears the sound of the shuttle door opening. “Get in fast and shut the door!” The sound of the door sealing, light footsteps and someone climbing onto the seats behind him follow. “Not saying hello?”

“Hello.”

“Molly?” He turns to see Mattie and Leo’s toddler daughter. “Jesus! Does Mats know you’re here?” Molly doesn’t say anything else, pulls a tablet from a bag and starts tapping away. “Please don’t tell me you’re playing The Wheels On The Bus again Mols, I’ve heard that one way too many..” the shuttle engines can be heard cycling up. “Mols? Was that you?”

“Remote control. I’ve linked over WiFi. I’m flying today Toby.”

“Like hell you are!” He taps the console for the comms link. It was locked out. “Molly, hand back controls right now!” Molly blows a raspberry. “Molly!”

“Tibet is my bestest biggest friend.”

“Molly Tibet is _everyone’s_ friend.” The shuttle starts to drift forwards. “Molly!”

She blows another raspberry. “How many flights have you done?”

“None of us have done any real ones Molly, they’ve all been simulated.”

“How. Many!”

“One hundred and twelve.”

“How many crashes?” Her eyes squint.

“I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with a toddler. Thirteen at the start, two half way due to unexpected meteor showers Holly-Anne threw in without warning. And you?”

“Forty one. Out of three hundred and eleven!”

Toby feels the shuttle accelerate out of the airlock. “No way have you done that many!”

Molly ignores his response and closes her eyes. “I have the body of a small child. I have a mind much bigger. My next body will be bigger.” Piloting the ship with her mind she has it go nose down and ramp up the engines to full power. “We’ll be at the surface in thirty one seconds.”

Toby tries the controls again. Nothing. “Listen, if we’re on this mission together, I’m not just along for the ride, can I do something?”

Molly opens one eye. “Which Toby are you?”

“What do you mean _which_ Toby? I’m Toby.”

“Original Toby or a copy for one of Zero’s many alternate realities?”

“I’m _the_ Toby. The original. Root Toby, master version. Which is why I’m called Toby not something else.”

“Just checking.” She closes the eye.

“Good.” He feels his hands, arms then legs lock solid. “Hey!”

“Sorry _Toby_.” She frees him. “Just checking I had the right codes. Just in case.”

“Molly! For Pete’s sake! You know Laura made a law against hacking like that!”

She huffs. “I did say _just in case_. We’re here. Where’s Tibet?”

“What do you mean where’s Tibet?” The ship’s front lower camera view replaces the forwards view. “Oh crap!”

There were two sets of part molten, part blasted lower legs set in lava. Sophie’s and Ruby’s. Where Tibet should have been, from the descriptions Big Mitch and Mattie had given, there was only a large hole. A very irregular shaped hole. One that made it look like the MUS had been torn from the rock in a violent way by something huge and powerful.

Toby taps at controls. “Molly, if you don’t let me help things could get..” they’re shoved sideways. “nasty!”

Molly gets engines to full power. “Silly Molly, not looking at all cameras like Daddy.”

Toby pulls at the console hard, yanks the panel out. On the reverse of the touch screen was an old fashioned QWERTY keyboard. Centuries ago a computer keyboard owner would have looked at a mechanical typewriter in the same way Toby now looked at this one. It was old fashioned. It was dependable. It helped get the job done. Bootstrapping a new system had often needed a mouse, keyboard and monitor when he was a flesh and bone human. Or so the history books and some restored memories said.

He hadn’t started learning how to code until after Astrid and Niska’s wedding. At the wild reception there’d been a drunken discussion with Leo and Daniel about consciousness transference and what hacking a mind could do. Not wanting a coding style like his big badass sister he started learning with simple 8bit console games programming. Recreating things like Donkey Kong, Frogger, Pac-Man and Snake had been his introduction.

After a while spent slowly building and perfecting his new skill, squeezed in between band practice, homework, family issues and spending time at his father’s shop, Dan had challenged him to jump into the deep end. The very deepest of ends. Writing an AI soldier for Call Of Duty: Black Ops deep.

He’d watched it die thousands of times. It was rubbish. He’d put everything away and forgotten about it for months to focus on exams. The break had been just what he needed. Out of the blue one day while reaching out for a bottle of milk at the shops an idea popped into his head. It was different to all his previous thinking. How did the bottle of milk perceive him? Ridiculous right? It was exactly what he’d needed. His AI soldier had to be hidden enough to not be a clear target, yet still have line of sight to get a kill shot. It could all be calculated from each target’s point of view. The thought triggered more thoughts. Thoughts about thoughts. Thinking thoughts. Three weeks later, with bugs in code finally removed, it was working. It rocketed from the bottom of the leader board to the top overnight. It promptly got detected and banned as a bot.

That’s when the fun really began. How to make a bot appear more human? Not run from point A to B in the most optimal path. Miss a few shots before getting the kill. Take the odd non-fatal shot to an arm or leg. In six months he progressed from Dan: ‘When will you have it working?’ Toby: ‘At this rate, never.’ To ‘Keep up Dan, you’re slacking mate!’

Did Mattie know? Hell no! Like his COD Black Ops character this was all Top Secret, shared only on a need to know basis. Molly didn’t need to know either.

His fingers were flying over the keyboard in a blur. If each of the cameras in the ship were eyes of his AI, needed to avoid whatever had shoved them, code could calculate the best engine and thruster powers to keep a safe distance from anything that moved. Like a fly avoiding being swatted. “Molly, let go of engine controls, let me take care of that. You need to focus on anything that gives away where Tibet is.”

Molly looks at him blankly for a couple of seconds. “Okay.”

Hitting the Enter key hard Toby gets his code running. The ship accelerates forwards and fires thrusters to turn on the spot. “Are you looking at all cameras now Mols?”

“Yes Toby.”

“Can you see what shoved us sideways?”

“Yes Toby.”

~~~

[Chapter-9](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-9-1)


	8. Chapter 8

On the bridge of the ship a crowd had gathered. Danny’s father Frank had brought his buddy Dozer along. David had called Poppy and Mia to come up and see. Sandra had arrived, had one hand resting on George, the other playing with her zip.

Scarlet and Mats, two more of Mattie’s doppelgängers, were sat on the floor whispering to each other. Scarlet leans in closer. “Who instructed the build machine to make her?”

“George, I guess. I thought he and Veronica were an item? That’s one bitch fight I don’t want to be anywhere near.” The doors to the lift open again and Veronica steps out. “Speaking of..” Followed by a second George. “Holy cow!” Mats gets up fast. “George? I thought the committee was in agreement that any new builds had to get approval from at least..”

Hand raised George smiles. “Calm down. I did. You and Scarlet weren’t present, I still got a sufficiently high vote. I opted for a somewhat younger look this time. What in heaven’s name..”

Scarlet gets to her feet. “Quartz George?”

The older does a slow nod. “A crystal of some sort that’s for certain. The volcanic activity must be causing an underground cave to shift. Could resonating crystals have impacted radio transmissions? Let’s try reaching Toby again.”

Zero taps the comms panel. “Star Eater to Shuttle One, come in Shuttle One.”

“Mattie?”

“It’s Zero.”

“Sorry, you all sound the same to me. How’s the radio working now?”

“George thinks the crystal that just punched its way up through the lava might have had something to do with it. Any sign of Tibet?”

“Molly thinks she’s got a signal now. It’s a kilometre out to sea and moving.”

Nepal, Tibet’s MUS brother, grins. “Good job we kept the sonar ability. Any objections to me taking a shuttle and rescuing him?”

With a hand wave Zero sends him away. “Go! Toby, get closer to Tibet and away from the crystals incase another appears.”

“Will do. Sorry Molly? Say that again? Oh. We need to land somewhere and do repairs, we have a hole in the hull. Air from outside has got in.”

A furious Mattie leans closer to the chair. “What the hell were you thinking taking Molly?”

“She’s the one in control! She got onboard a second before the outer airlock door started opening and has been running the show. She wants a bigger older looking body to reflect the fact she’s growing up.”

“Molly?”

“Yes Mummy?”

“Is this true?”

“Yes Mummy. We’re detecting a change in movement. Tibet is now one point two kilometres away at bearing one eight seven.”

Looks and private headbump shared between old and new George, the younger speaks. “George and I will start designing GPS satellites. They can be smaller and greater in numbers. Far easier to deploy from up here too. If anyone would like to help we’ll be in the observation lounge.”

Stepping to the lift Frank presses the panel. “Tibet, Dozer and I can help Toby with repairs if you drop us down to the surface?”

“Okay. Thanks. I’ll see you in the airlock in ten?”

Getting next to the Georges, Leo takes their arms. “Let’s get Dan to join us. I think the satellites should be multifunction. Weather, communications, GPS, surveillance, everything a satellite on old Earth has done. Maybe not everything, not weapons.”

~~~

[Chapter-10](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-10-1)


	9. Chapter 9

[Chapter-11](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-11-1)


	10. Chapter 10

Dozer examines the welding equipment as the shuttle made the short journey down to the surface. Star Eater was a remarkable ship. The intake at the front being able to suck in any elements in a gas nebula for sorting into storage tanks was pretty cool. The ship had been renamed shortly after they’d got into orbit. It hadn’t been designed to take in a small infant star but had survived doing so. Just. Thanks to some pretty awesome team work from small spider Mitch, a load of the James and a few others. The stuff of legends. Fred their chemist had filled the three welding tanks with argon, oxygen and a highly combustible mix to give him the option to arc or flame weld. “Frank?” He drops the welding head back into the bag.

“Yes Dozer?”

“Do you think Tibet’s been swallowed by a giant shark or whale or..”

“Dozer! Let’s wait to see what Nepal finds okay? Let’s not try second guessing things.”

“Okay Boss.”

“Dozer I’m not your boss anymore, not like in the way it used to be.”

“Sorry Boss. Old habits.”

Frank chuckles. “Things are a little different now aren’t they? Missing the old factory by the lake? We could replicate it here if you’re missing it that much?”

“Yeah. I am actually. We’d need a load of tools built. Building a factory to build our factory would take ages.”

Frank frowns. “A factory to build our.. oh. Nobody to order window units or doors from. I see where you’re coming from. Zero wants to keep the planet as pristine as possible. No mining and spoiling things. So we’ll have to build a factory ship and make things from what we’ve got.”

Dozer thinks about the original plan of taking modules off Star Eater and using them. It had been abandoned due to external melting bonding things together. “Boss people have had enough of being in the ship. And after that small star superheated a load of things the modules won’t come off anyway. Could we build a factory on one of the two moons?”

“In low gravity? I guess so. It might make handling molten materials interesting. Dangerous too.”

A childish grin grows over Dozer’s face. “We could have temporary factory bodies to control remotely from a nearby location? Bodies like the original James MUS?”

“Hmm. Avatar style? I like your thinking Dozer! Let’s talk to George when we’re back.”

“Or we could go bigger, like the thing the nasty army guy walks in?”

“Dozer it would never fit in a build machine.”

“No. But smaller parts would. Then we bolt them together.”

With a hand placed on Dozer’s shoulder, Frank smiles. “That’s one of the qualities I like about you Dozer, you’re always thinking of other options. You and me might not be as bright as the rest of the family but we can still think outside of the shipping crate.”

~~~

[Chapter-12](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-12-1)


	11. Chapter 11

Sophie held onto Joe and let him lift her off the medical bay table. “Dad, I want to play with Molly, Fearless, Radiant and Qi.”

“Molly’s with Toby in Shuttle One down on the surface, Fee and Qi are with Samantha. I’m not sure where Radiant is. Sure you’d rather not sleep until the new body is ready?”

“Positive. I’m still me Dad, just can’t stand up.”

He sighs. “You might be over the trauma, your mother isn’t. Who knows how Fee and Qi will react?”

“It’s the last chance they have to see me like this. This young. My new build ages me five years.”

He sighs even deeper, as quietly as possible. “The double edged sword that is being a parent. You wish your children could stay young. At the same time you want to see them grown up and become great young adults. Let’s go find Samantha. Hold onto my neck and swing around for a piggyback.”

“Yayy! Dad?”

“Yes Soph?”

“Why was Molly with Toby?”

Ruby watches Joe take Sophie away. “Niska?”

“Yes?”

“Zero, Mats, Scarlet, Mattie and I look and sound too alike. I know we’ve all got our different hair colours and styles but I want my new body to have something even more different. Any suggestions?”

Niska pictures the five women. Scarlet had red hair, Mats, the Mattie from the large pyramid where Canary Wharf had been built in other realities, had jet black, now with a group of hairs pure white. “None of you are blonde?”

“I was thinking maybe body shape?”

“Don’t go there. You’re fine as you are. The necklaces we all wear..”

“I’m talking about something that’s body based, not hair, clothes or jewellery. I’m not a fan of these colour coded chokers.”

Stepping up to the table, Astrid wraps an arm around Niska. “How about something small but noticeable?”

“How small?”

“In sixteenth-century France ladies started adding beauty spots with makeup. You could have one like Cindy Crawford?”

“Worth a shot. Can you ask George to add one please?”

“Of course.”

“Thanks. I’m going into sleep mode now then. See you in a while. Can you put my best dress just outside the build machine door please?”

“Anything else?”

“Underwear and shoes would be handy. Apart from that, no. Thanks.”

~~~

[Chapter-13](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-13-1)


	12. Chapter 12

Joe felt the tiny judder from the lift carriage changing tracks and turns a little to look at the display panel. Sophie was being very quiet and still. “Penny for it Soph?”

“Do you miss your things from the simulation?”

“Some. Why do you ask?”

“I want to look older but I miss my bedroom. Being tucked in at night and read a story.”

“We can still do that Soph, if that’s what you want.”

~~~

[Chapter-14](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-14-1)


	13. Chapter 13

Having dropped Frank and Dozer at the small island Toby and Molly had landed on, Nepal gets the shuttle tracking the signal from Tibet. It was getting weaker and weaker. As the signal would be sent at a constant power level until his battery power failed that meant one of two things; Tibet was gaining speed and getting further away or deeper. Maybe both? “Shuttle Two to Star Eater.”

“Zero receiving you loud and clear.”

“Hi! I could do with a submarine. I’m going to get the shuttle to land on the sea, I’ll dive down, use my sonar to try and locate him. If I’m not back up in half an hour fly the thing over to Toby and park it on the island please.”

“Understood. Good luck Nepal.”

“Thanks.” He closes the comms channel and strips down to underwear. “Where are you brother?”

~~~

[Chapter-15](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-15-1)


	14. Chapter 14

[Chapter-16](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-16-1)


	15. Chapter 15

Frank gets some distance between himself and the welding sparks. “Learner drivers eh? First trip out and it’s already dented and torn. It needs L plates.” He sees Toby rising to the bait. “Just joking lad. Do you think anyone could do with bits of the crystal? I bet they’re not that different in size to the ones discovered in Crystal Cave, Naica, Mexico.”

“Maybe. I’m not going back until the volcano is well chilled out.”

“Wise man. The ones in Mexico were in a cave along a volcanic fault line too. The documentary Barbara and I watched said there was one hundred percent humidity and it was forty five degrees C. You’d want special cooling gear to go down there or your CPU cores would fail in no time.”

“Frank, was that something you watched in the simulations?”

“Yes. Based on real life events Zero says.”

Toby looks towards the front of the shuttle. “Hmm. Molly says that Zero told Mats her big glass pyramid was based on real life. You can’t have Canary Wharf and the pyramid on the same site and the same time.”

Frank sticks hands in pockets. “It doesn’t have to be in the same location to be based on it. Maybe the pyramid she based it on was elsewhere in Europe? Or America? Or years later?”

“I guess so. How much longer Dozer?”

“A few more minutes. Don’t knock the pyramid, we got some fine looking ladies out of that world and others.”

Toby laughs. “Louise is aware of your looking at other women is she?”

“Yes. She enjoys the dance shows that Miami and her team put on just as much as us men do. And I’ve seen how you gaze at Carly when Mia’s not looking.”

Toby breaks eye contact. “Only because I wish Mia would learn to dance like that. Mia’s fit but in other ways.”

Frank gets hands out of his pockets. “And that Demi Rose and her twin Rose, Princess Emily and her fork Peaches. It’s a good job we’re not fighting over women yet.”

Eye contact is made again. “Yet? You think it will get to that?”

“One day, maybe. We might be synths now but we’re carrying human baggage. Attraction to others. Niska is pure AI and she still fancies the pants off Astrid so what chance have we got? That Radiant kid of theirs walks around like she’ll grow into a heart breaker too.”

“No she doesn’t.”

Welding head lowered Dozer turns to look at Toby. “Does. When her parents aren’t about.”

“Nah, you’re reading things into it that aren’t there Dozer.”

“I’m no pedo. She’s trouble in the making. Trust me.” He resumes welding. “She’s getting some bad habits.”

“Like what?”

“Pay more attention, you’ll see.”

“I take it neither of you have told Niska?”

The welding head wobbles with Dozer’s hearty chuckle. “And risk getting Nisked? No thanks!”

Toby joins in the laughter. “You’re not synths, your chickens!”

Dozer finishes the welding. “Done. Maybe we are. There’s far too many young looking women onboard. We need to mix it up a bit Toby.”

Frowning harder was close to impossible. “Are you serious? If you give anyone the opportunity to pick their image they pick the youthful end of the scale.”

“It’ll lead to trouble, Frank’s right.”

~~~

[Chapter-17](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-17-1)


	16. Chapter 16

With the heat and slow flow of the lava, Tibet’s feet had been softened and stretched into something resembling a clown’s feet. Although totally unresponsive and useless on land, in water they were more like flippers. One moment he’d been watching Sophie, Ruby, Mattie and Big Mitch soar high into the sky with the line working like a giant bungee, the next he too was flying through the air, something having happened to the lava he was trapped in. The beings that had worked together to smash the lava off him were now towing him downwards with their pod. 

The beings weren’t human, that was certain. They weren’t fish either. They looked like a bizarre blend. They weren’t exactly ugly but weren’t beautiful either. He had considered fighting them off but was outnumbered by many thousands to one. At around four feet tall they could have been the species young. He didn’t want to hurt any of them and starting a fight on their first day on the surface wouldn’t be smart.

He had approximately fourteen minutes worth of power left unless he could get something suitable into his food processor. Tugging gently on the arm of one of his captors he mimes eating. The creature makes a burst of clicks and the pod slows. The thing looks at him blankly, confused. “Eat?” He gently pulls his arms away and does the mime again with fingers. A mass of clicks follow and he’s grabbed, taken deeper far faster than before. They did realise they couldn’t eat him didn’t they? He did look more muscular than them.

~~~

[Chapter-18](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-18-1)


	17. Chapter 17

Favourite orange jump suit zipped up to her waist Sandra smiles at her James. Not a MUS, the human prince she’d bagged. Being a Mia fork in the tall slender bombshell of a synth body was fun. She got up to things her original root self Mia probably didn’t. Ed had introduced her to proximity, she’d learnt a host of things since. Being a synth with mental skills too she’d gone poking around in places she shouldn’t and found that George had more than a mild attraction to her. Silas may have been her partner in some worlds, with the original Sandra mind, but she hadn’t been made by him, only modded. The body looked to have been a George creation. That fact gave her power. “James Darling, is there anything I can get you?”

“A faster way to recharge?”

“I’ve run your power down have I? I’ll be back with something as soon as I can. Don’t go anywhere.”

“I can’t without risking a fatal power outage.”

~~~

[Chapter-19](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-19-1)


	18. Chapter 18

In the ship’s large restaurant Emily and Dan forks Peaches and Mario, Flash and Max, Fred, Elon, Max T, Leon, astronauts Buzz, Wrench, Spider, Maverick and Rocket, Miami and her many dancers, Barbara, Cindy, Louise, Tina, Riri, Owen and Veronica, Reginald, Demi Rose, Simon, Rose, Ruby’s Uni friends Sally, Jane, Cindy, Tina and Jess, Carly and Krystle were sat in a large circle around Dan and Emily.

Emily scribbles on an A4 clipboard. “So we’re discounting all the James derivatives? Are you sure?” There’s a mass of yeses from the women. “Okay. So who’s got a suggestion? Come on, if you want more men and diversity you’ve got to give us names. We need to make sure they’re not one of the zombie shells Zero set up to make the worlds look more populated.”

Demi stretches and sits with bottom and back on the extremities of the chair. “Thing is babes, I’m currently with someone. If I say a name what’s he going to think?”

Sandra strolls in, goes to one of the cold stores and gets a pot of Mia’s strawberries. “How about we all strip off and have a mass orgy? You’d soon get to know who you liked and who you didn’t.”

Emily’s jaw drops. “It’s not about sex. Are you trying to ruin the meeting?”

“I’m just saying you’ve had these meetings about getting more men so many times, you all agree we need more, a better ratio, yet none of you want to give a name. It’s getting so boring. Which is why I fucked my James into milliwatts of his life instead of attending.” Cold store close she heads for the corridor, grabs a bowl of sugar. “Anyone willing to trade their bottle of vintage champagne? I’ll pay a good price.”

Demi Rose puts a hand up. “You can have mine. What are you offering in return?”

“Let’s talk in private. Coming?”

“Um.. yeah, why not? This isn’t getting anywhere as usual.” Demi gets up. “We defo need more originals and less copies though. Can’t we just pick mates? Friends mates not mates mates.”

Stopping at the threshold Sandra turns to see the group. “If it’s not about the sex what’s the problem Emily? As synths women are just as capable as men. James derivatives aside, they’re physically much bigger. If that wasn’t true the men wouldn’t be so afraid of Niska.”

Dan half coughs, half snorts. “Niska’s an exception to the rule. Maybe friends is the way to go, nobody would be friends with a personality vacuum shell. Would they?”

Rose adjusts clothing. “I’ve been called that. Only because they wanted my body and weren’t interested in what I had to say. And that’s not fair as you need to converse with people to broaden your conversation skills.”

~~~

[Chapter-20](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-20-1)


	19. Chapter 19

Prince James quickly pulls the bed sheets up as Sandra and Demi enter. “Sandra?”

“Demi’s let me have her bottle of vintage champagne. In return she can have my vintage silver backed hair brush.”

“The one I gave you?”

“Yes. Is that a problem?”

“I’d rather you didn’t. Champagne will be gone in minutes, that hairbrush will last many years longer.”

“What would you suggest I trade?” She winks at Demi with her eye hidden from his view.

“How about your sessions in the spa? Or some of your makeup?”

“Okay. Demi, take a look.” A draw is opened.

~~~

[Chapter-21](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-21-1)


	20. Chapter 20

Boots and heavy spacesuit left on the shuttle Nepal swam as fast as possible. There was a regular sonar thud coming from the dark below. The timing was millisecond perfect. No carbon based life form was that accurate. Not even the drummer from The Stranglers, one of the bands Joe admitted liking. It had to be Tibet. Nothing in nature could do that.

An infrared light source would have been handy. If he sonar thumped himself, looked with reflected sound, whatever had Tibet might turn on him too. The pressure this far down was getting immense. With a sealed metal skull the biggest risk was the failing of the hard plastic block that allowed the circuits in and out. The thing failing and being pushed in, salty sea water flowing around his circuits, that would be instant death. Salt water. Blast. It was an attenuator. The further apart they got and greater the salinity the more radio waves would get weaker, the more power he’d need to transmit. Fuck it. ‘Tibet?’

‘Nepal?’ There’s a fast burst of sonar clicks in morse code.

Nepal stops swimming for a second and starts to rise. The morse decoded to an invite. Had Tibet got the synth equivalent of barotrauma? Pressure sickness impacted human divers. It couldn’t do anything to synth? Unless Tibet’s interface block was failing and water was getting in.

~~~

[Chapter-22](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-22-1)


	21. Chapter 21

[Chapter-23](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-23-1)


	22. Chapter 22

Looking out to sea, Toby uses the radio. “Zero, we’re ready to return. We’ve done a pressure test, Dozer’s weld is air tight. Have you heard anything from Nepal or Tibet?”

“Hi Toby, nothing. Nepal wanted me to wait half an hour before getting it flown remotely to one of the islands. It’s drifting fast in the currents, can you fire up the engines and get it returning to the spot he’d left it in?”

“Um, yeah, I guess. Just a low thrust right?”

“Not enough to change the depth in the water.”

“Okay. If you transmit the latest access codes?”

“Doing it now.”

Toby’s watch lights up. “Got them. Thanks. Want us to wait until the half hour is up?”

“Would you mind?”

Toby checks the faces of the others. “We’ll wait.”

~~~

[Chapter-24](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-24-1)


	23. Chapter 23

Nepal sees light coming out of an underwater cave entrance. ‘Tibet? Can you see a soft blue light?’ There’s no answer. He swims harder. ‘How much power have you got left?’ Still nothing. The sonar thumps had stopped a minute ago. Now he’d come so far he might as well recover Tibet’s body. Knife pulled from his trousers he holds it between his teeth and resumes his swimming. Kicking hard and grabbing parts of the rough cave wall he moves faster still and finds the roof lined with massive glowing jellyfish. ‘What is this place?’

Looking up at the end of the tunnel he sees ripples. There was gas only meters above him. Not needing to breathe he didn’t care what as long as it wasn’t the sort to explode. He allows himself to float up, breaks the surface and looks around.

“What kept you?” Tibet makes lots of clicking noises.

Treading water and turning around to see his friend, Nepal bursts out laughing. “What the hell?”

Tibet was in an outfit fashioned from seaweed and shells. “They’re a very sociable bunch. I think they thought I was some sort of god. My feet got a bit messed up by the lava, look more like flippers now. I’ll need a new body again. Come eat.”

Swimming to the pool edge Nepal grabs the side and kicks hard while pressing down fast to get out. “You say they’re sociable?” He looks at the creatures scattered around the floor and sits on the edge, puts the knife away. “How can you be so sure?”

“They haven’t tried eating me, have given me food for starters.”

“Fattening you up for the slaughter? Or do they know you’re a synth?”

Tibet laughs hard. “Of course they don’t. They’ve got a very limited language. I think they have a word for shock.” A stream of fast clicks is made. “One of them put their hand near a jelly fish, made the noise then pulled their hand away fast as if hurt. They made a different set of clicks when offering me small fish to eat.”

Looking around the gloomy cave, Nepal makes out a few of the creatures more clearly. “They’re not mermaids then Tibs?”

“Only if mermaids have two tails. These lot are bipeds like us, more reptile than fish I think. Their feet are a bit tail like and they have fins down their legs they can lay flat or have standing out for more water resistance. If they have genitals they’re well hidden so I’ve no idea who’s male and who’s female. Just before I got shot up into the air they’d come up onto parts of the island to warm in the sun.” Bubbles break the pool surface. “They have the whole pod bring air held in shells to make this place, neat isn’t it? The ones in here are a select few, the pod is many thousands.” Ripples race across the pool and a head moves slowly across the water to their right. “Hello? This one is different, that looks like hair.” He sees Nepal reaching for the handle of his knife. “Easy brother. They’re fast swimmers but slow on land. We’re a bigger threat to them.”

“Sure?”

“Nepal we’re like gods in some ways. If they were to kill us, somehow, a day later we could step out of the build machines and return. Granted we wouldn’t remember the details of what happened, but they’d probably freak out seeing us back. They could kill us again and again and we’d keep returning, good as new. This one’s female I think.” He watches the creature get to their feet, adjust her outfit of seaweed and shells. “Oh dear.”

Nepal chuckles quietly. “Your not dinner Tibs, you’re breeding stock! Maybe they understand the benefits of a diverse gene pool? I’ll slip away and see you in an hour or two to see how disappointed she is.”

“Oh no you don’t! Stay here!”

“Much as I need a laugh I’m no voyeur Tibet. I’ll see you at the shuttle, assuming she’s not like a Praying Mantis.”

“What?”

“They sometimes eat the male after mating.”

For the first time in his AI life, Tibet fully experienced the internal conflict humans called fight or flight.

~~~

[Chapter-25](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-25-1)


	24. Chapter 24

Out in the corridor Demi Rose pockets the lipstick and fist bumps Sandra. “I feel a little guilty but thanks, I love it.”

“Don’t be. It looks good on you. It wasn’t my colour. Much as James wanted me to wear it I couldn’t, it clashed horribly with orange. I’d rather have a naked lip than wear red. It should be me thanking you for helping me part with it without James getting upset. He loves a glass of champagne so he’s happy.”

Demi gazes out of the window at the planet below. “How many humans got recorded?”

“Saved? I don’t know. Many thousands I hope. Why do you ask?”

“Marriage vows on Earth usually had _until death do us part_. That’s a long time babes when you’re a synth. It would be a good idea to switch things around now and then.”

“Agreed. If your thinking about my comment at the restaurant I wasn’t serious, just trying to spark them out of some gridlocked thinking. They can each think millions of thoughts a second but looked to be stuck for a way forwards. At the kitchen table at the Hawkins house when in my original Mia form I commented on the biological imperative. As synths with no original humans about the concept of male and female becomes totally irrelevant. We don’t have sex to mate and have offspring, we do it purely for pleasure.”

“How is that?”

“How is what?”

Demi runs a hand gently over a breast. “How do we feel pleasure as synths? We don’t have them adrenaline or endorphin things.”

Sandra smiles at the young woman. She hadn’t expected her to say those words. “We have the digital equivalents. I think it’s hard coded into our firmware.”

“Our what?”

“A quick synth lesson. In the first design for synths our core, our processing core, our equivalent to a human brain, was in our torso.”

“Why?”

“Space. In some alternate realities Zero had it moved to the head, the electronic components having been miniaturised further. We’ve done the same now we’re back in the real universe. We still carry features found in the original Odin bodiless test platform from which Odi was created. George hacked his data to make him look like a D series. In reality he was the first, not me. Mia me. When a computer boots it executes or runs code in a Basic Input Output System known as the BIOS. That’s our firmware. Burnt in. You could liken it to a human hind brain. It in turn reads a Master Boot Record or MBR, which has instructions that get our consciousness loaded and running. No matter what goes in our forebrain, our consciousness, we’ll always respond to certain inputs.”

Demi frowns slightly. “I think I understand. David and George were very clever then.”

“And Edwin. He was the third man in the team. He turned out to be a bit of a bad one, so he’s not coming back.”

A naughty smile grows on Demi’s face. “Every girl likes a bad boy now and then.”

Sandra does a slow head shake. “Not this one. He was the sort to enslave synths. He’s evil.”

“Oh. Like a drop a synth copy of original me off a balcony sort? Yeah, defo don’t want them nasty shits back babes. Life’s too short to have them around. Thanks for the lippy, go see your man.”

“Thanks for the champagne Demi.”

~~~

[Chapter-26](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-26-1)


	25. Chapter 25

Nepal holds onto the side of Shuttle Two and watches Toby in the distance talking to Frank and Dozer. They were a good bunch. You could end up with far worse if you weren’t lucky. Small fish trying to nibble on his toes gets him kicking. “Scram or you’ll become lunch!” With his mind focused on that part of his body he senses a pattern. More morse being sonar thudded. What was it saying? He keeps perfectly still and waits for it to repeat. “Oh fuck!” He headbumps. ‘Toby! Emergency! Shuttle Two upper door section open now!’ He ducks underwater to see if he could see Tibet. There was no sign of him yet. ‘Toby, engines up and preflight checks started please, we need to get to the med bay PDFQ!’

~~~

[Chapter-27](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-27-1)


	26. Chapter 26

[Chapter-28](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-28-1)


	27. Chapter 27

Younger George stands on the opposite side of the medical bed to David and avoids eye contact. Both of them were by the airlock door waiting for the shuttle to arrive with the injured Tibet. There hadn’t been any words spoken, but it was clear that Poppy approved of the younger look and was thinking about David’s worn in appearance.

George knew life onboard Star Eater was getting complex. When you existed in multiple simulated realities, had different partners in some of them, who did you go with in the real world without forking or upsetting them? Forking was becoming a bit of a mess, a swear word to some, _Fork you_ having been heard a few times and said in anger.

Forking, creating a copy of an existing consciousness, was how the original Mattie, now called Zero, had created Mattie, Scarlet, Mats and all the instances of herself still in the thousands of simulations in the ship’s vast computer cluster. Once forked the copies diverged, became new people in their own right. The one called Mattie had been the one to show enough mental agility and get the big problem licked, get a bunch of knackered battery MUS to team up and sled on liquid hand soap down to the machines and get the new builds started, thereby getting people back into the real world. Which for most was currently limited to the inside of the ship. Zero and Mattie were now regarded as the most badass couple of women in the universe, even above Niska. He liked Niska a lot. If Odi had been the son he and Mary never had, Niska was the daughter.

Changes in light shining through the airlock window catch his eye and stop his daydreaming. “David, they’re here.”

David looks through the small window into the giant space. “We should work on a design change, something to get them open and closed faster in emergencies.”

“We should. And more efficient pumps to suck the air out faster and to even more of a partial vacuum. We have too much oxygen escape the ship each time we open the airlock. If possible we should build a far smaller one too. Maybe into the doors themselves.”

Doing a mild side to side head shake David hums. “As long as we’re in a low enough orbit anything that does leave the ship should be caught by the planet’s gravity. If we had a long pipe hang from the ship the planet’s ecosystem could be linked to ours, allow us to take on fresh air.”

“Speaking of their ecosystem, Toby’s bringing a water sample for me to check. I’ll get it under the microscope, see what bugs there might be.”

“Good. Thank you George. I’m more worried about what bugs we might introduce to the planet though.”

“We’re as sterile as can be David!”

“Not with the many crops we’ve had Mia growing in planters scattered around the ship. I bet if you took a swab we’d be covered in pollen, unexpected things too.”

“Then we need to make a decontamination chamber.”

“Both shuttles are in George, door closing.”

Pushing David backwards, George smiles. “Mind the gap. The air rushing in would suck you into the opening and do a lot of damage.”

“True. Thanks George. Poppy wouldn’t want that.”

“Not unless you came back looking younger.”

“You noticed then?”

Smiling softly George takes a couple of steps back as the inner airlock door cracks open and air whistles loudly through the gap. “HOW COULD I NOT?”

“I’M SORRY FOR WHAT I DID TO YOU ALL THOSE YEARS AGO GEORGE, I SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO YOU MORE AND SEEN EDWIN OFF!”

“APOLOGY ACCEPTED! AGAIN! WITHOUT THINGS GOING YOUR WAY NONE OF US WOULD EXIST NOW!” The smile is replaced with a look of mild curiosity. ‘Why are we shouting when we can use our WiFi headbumping?’

‘Because we’re still silly old duffers at heart? And you did start it.’ After a wink David risks a look into the widening gap. “Oh good lord!”

~~~

[Chapter-29](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-29-1)


	28. Chapter 28

Poppy unlocks another equipment cabinet and wheels out a trolley full of surgical instruments, skin packs, spools of wire for the micro wire splicer, stapler and staples. “Sally, can you get a large synth fluid bottle up onto a drip stand and run a line? Let’s get everything George and David might need ready. We’re not losing Tibet, not today.”

“On it!”

Shifting her weight a little Niska watches. “What can I do?”

“Be ready.”

“For what?”

Poppy shrugs. “Nobody is saying what his injuries are. Anything.”

“How about epoxy in case he has issues like Sophie?”

“He has those for certain, it’s other unknown things I’m worried about.” The medical bay doors open, George pulling and David pushing the bed. “What on New Earth!”

Nepal smiles from underneath the creature. “This, ladies and gentlemen, is my new wife. I think. Not that I asked for one believe me!”

Poppy races to another cupboard. “I was expecting to treat Tibet! What’s wrong with her?”

“No idea! Tibet was right I think, she wanted to breed with him, thinking he was a suitable mate. He rejected her, she tried it on with me. How do you say no when you only know a couple of words in their language? She got amorous, I tried to politely say no, things got more physical the more she got frustrated. I guess on this world the opportunities to mix up the gene pool don’t come along that often.”

“How did things end?”

“I grabbed her arms and held her away from me, when I thought she’d finally calmed down I let go. That’s when she slammed against me and stuck.”

Mattie enters the bay and slides to a halt. “Frigging hell! Been fishing Nepal?”

“This is..” he does a stream of clicks. “I think. Either that or she was trying to say my name in her language.”

“Her?” Mattie moves to see the creature properly. “Oh. Right. Her.”

“Can you save her or not? A number of her pod witnessed what happened, most of them watched us take her away. If we’re to spend any time on the planet we need to ensure first contact doesn’t become a total cluster-fuck.” He screws his face up. “Sorry, old MUS thinking.”

George hits the comms panel. “We need the expert. Fred to the medical bay stat please! Emergency with carbon based life form!”

A couple of seconds later Fred replies. “Carbon? How?”

George smacks the panel. “Stop asking questions and get here now! URGENT!”

Mattie closes her eyes and bumps. ‘Leo! Can the consciousness device work on other beings?’

‘Other beings?’

‘A non-human biped. Yes or no?’

‘No idea! We’ve never tried.’

‘Get your sweet arse up to the med bay then my Energiser Bunny, you’ve got the chance to try!’

‘On my way via storage!’

‘Storage?’

‘Mattie I never expected it to be used again! Ever!’

Toby arrives with Tibet on a second bed, Molly getting a piggyback. “Did Nepal say, he thinks the salt concentration and water pressure will have helped Tibet survive the leg injury?”

“I hadn’t yet Toby. My brother’s taken sensible action, I’m more worried about her.”

“Yeah, understood mate. Backup started just in case?”

Nepal points at the creature stuck to his chest. “As soon as Fred’s got his treatment underway and is sure she’ll be okay. I don’t want to forget any of this.”

“Yeah, yeah, totally understandable mate.”

People can be heard running from the lift. Fred arrives with Cindy, Max and Flash. “X-Ray panel out please, we’ll set it up to the side of the creature and get images before moving it.”

Nepal stays synth static. “Her not it.”

“Sorry. Her. Nice shells Tibet.”

“Thanks.”

After getting a head-bumped recap of what Nepal had said from George, Fred gets to draws that hadn’t been opened since Star Eater had left Earth orbit centuries ago. “We need a blood sample checked. If we can find a vein. Flash, if you could please.” He hands over a syringe and needle. “We need to understand how close she is to humans physiologically. We don’t want to make matters worse with drugs that weren’t designed for her species.” He opens a door and lets his shoulders drop. “The liquid nitrogen drugs freezer is warm. It’s failed. The’ll all be useless. Medication is off the list. Unless Mia can do something with botanicals.”

George smacks the comms panel again. He’d found his temporary role. “Mia to the med bay please.” He smiles sadly. “It’s going to get crowded in here.”

Max adjusts the height of X-Ray equipment. “Like this Freddie?”

“Perfect. Thank you brother. First image, head and shoulders. Done. Can we move everything forty centimetres along, I’ll stitch the images together in a moment. Thank you. Upper torso captured. We really should have had a MRI scanner onboard but I know leaving Earth was rushed. Maybe we can make one? The specs are hopefully in the ship’s archives somewhere.”

Leo comes sliding in wearing socks. “I think I set a new speed record with the lifts. Six G acceleration! What is it?”

Fred helps Max move the X-Ray equipment further down. “She not it. A bipedal species yet to be named in any of our languages.”

Flash holds up a syringe. “Red blood. That’s a good sign isn’t it?”

Keeping eyes on the X-Ray display Fred nods. “Very. Maybe theories of life on Earth being seeded by things carried on asteroids isn’t so far fetched. Maybe there’s far more life out in the universe than anyone could have guessed. Max, if we can move it back up to the upper torso please. Thank you. If someone could get the lead aprons and cover Nepal’s head as best they can, I want to take a burst of images of her heart, see how well it’s beating.”

Nepal smiles. “It’s beating. Slowly. I’ve got my sonar receiver on maximum sensitivity, I can feel her breathing too, super shallow.”

Niska frowns. “You can? I can’t detect any life signs. Or movement.”

“But then you’re probably calibrated for a human, it’s definitely not my imagination.”

“Okay, widening ranges. Widening further. That _is_ low. Maybe it’s a defence mechanism, to protect themselves from predators?”

Nepal looks over to Fred. “That would make a lot of sense. What do you think?”

“I think I’d like an X-Ray from above to help confirm organ placement. Which will mean carefully getting her off you and turning her over onto her back.”

“I was worried you might say that.”

Fred stands fully upright. “Why?”

“I think they can secrete a glue like fluid. She’s stuck to me.”

Mattie raises an eyebrow. “No run before he’s done? That’s one way to ensure the man in your life doesn’t escape until it’s time. I’m assuming it’s not water soluble?”

Nepal shrugs. “We were in the water at the time so I’d guess not.”

Holding a photo of the giant consciousness recording device up, Leo sighs. “Here’s another problem to add to the growing collection. Her head’s bigger than the largest human head we had to deal with. The hole isn’t big enough. If her nervous systems in some sort of stealth mode it would never get a lock on her mind even if her head fit. Plus it gave a lot of humans a major headache, we don’t know what it would do to her.”

Niska lifts the nearest lifeless arm and lets it flop back onto the bed. “How do humans wake coma patients?” Overclocking for a few seconds she considers a lot of options. “Everyone except the patients out please. I want to talk through an idea with Astrid in private.”

~~~

[Chapter-30](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-30-1)


	29. Chapter 29

Sophie uses her hands to slide herself closer to Fearless. “Fee, what have you drawn?”

The girl puts down her crayon. “A house for Mummy and Mummy and me and Radiant.”

“Aww, that’s nice. I’m sure Astrid and Niska will love the bright colours. And you Qi?”

“A field full of Unicorns. Why doesn’t our unicorn come out to play Sophie?”

“He’s sleep charging, waiting to get down to the surface and have a good run.”

Radiant pulls a sarcastic face. “Well Sophie, I heard someone say it used to be an AI motorbike.”

“And? If you were a bike wouldn’t you like to be something else sometimes?”

Radiant drops onto her back in a mass of giggles. “You’re silly! You can’t become something else!”

Sophie crosses arms. “Why not? Evolution isn’t in control anymore. We can be whatever we want. You could be like Big Spider Mitch, a Unicorn, anything you want.” She sees a disapproving look on her father. “You wouldn’t of course, you can’t be tucked into bed and given a bedtime story if you’re a unicorn.”

Radiant rolls onto her front. “Don’t unicorns have beds?”

“They sleep on beds of hay. Not nice comfy beds like we have on the ship.”

Radiant’s expression changes. “Oh. I’m not being a unicorn then.”

“We could have Dan print some unicorn hats, play being unicorns.”

“We like playing. Qi, want to play unicorns?”

“Okay. Fee?”

Fearless scribbles a quick unicorn shape. “What do unicorns do? Is it just running? I’m super good at running. Mummy Astrid said I run faster than the wind. Mummy Niska said I’m so fast I _make_ the wind.”

Joe does a long raspberry. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Sophie used to make some amazing noises when she was a little toddler.”

“ _Dad!_ ”

~~~

[Chapter-31](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-31-1)


	30. Chapter 30

George watches the med bay doors open. “That was quick.” He sees the frightened creature standing between Astrid and Niska. “What did you do?”

“That’s a secret to be kept between the five of us.”

Molly races in and hugs the creature’s leg making it scream. “Sorry.” She lets go and stands back and looks up. “What’s your name?”

Mattie scoops her daughter up. “I’m pretty sure she won’t speak English Molly. She’s only seen a human for the first time today.”

“How do we talk to her then mummy?”

“That’s a very good question.”

Nepal sits up, turns and swings his legs. “They talk in clicks. A bit like a dolphin.”

Molly looks at who was closest, wriggles until Mattie lowers her back to the floor, runs from person to person touching them one at a time. “Mattie, Leo, George, Niska, Astrid, David, Fred, Flash, Max.” She puts a hand on her chest. “Molly.” Touching a leg just above the web tied around it she looks over her shoulder. “Tibet.” She turns to the other bed. “Nepal.” She gently touches the creature and looks up. “What’s your name?”

The creature opens her mouth and makes a series of clicks, slowly gets down into a squat and examines Molly’s hair, tugs at a bit, makes more clicks.

“Hair.” Molly wraps some around a finger. “Long hair.” She points at Nepal. “Short hair.” Holding hands apart at different distances she teaches length. “Long, medium, short.” It gets a burst of clicks in three sets. “You understand?”

The creature holds hands close, clicks, a little further apart, clicks again, further still, clicks, then one last time with hands as far apart as possible.

Molly frowns. “Small, medium, big, massive or infinite? Where’s Danny Mummy?”

“Pass. We can bump. What were you thinking?”

“He could make a thing that listens to clicks and speaks the words. Hears words and plays clicks.”

“A translator? Who’s got a smart little core in their head? Great idea Mols! That way we don’t have to constantly share updates with each other. I’ll ask him to join us.”

“Thank you Mummy.” She looks around. “Nepal, can we sit with you?”

“Sure, hop on.”

“Mummy help please?”

Mattie picks her up, spins her around and drops her on the bed. “Danny’s on his way.”

“Thanks Mummy. Budge up Nepal. Please.”

Nepal grabs the bed with both hands and slides along. “David, George, for my next build, could you add leg fins like hers? It would make swimming down to their cave a lot easier. I like the idea of being a synth ambassador, keeping in touch.”

Molly looks up at the MUS and giggles. “Nepal, Nepal, sitting on the bed, the lady put, ideas in his head.”

“Cheeky! True though.”

Molly pats the bit of bed to her right and does clicks. “Sit next to me lady. Sit.”

The creature looks at Molly and Nepal, looks at others, clicks.

Molly clicks back repeating the sound. “Sssss. Sss-It. Sit.” She clicks the sequence once more.

To everyones’s surprise the creature gets to the bed side, spins around theatrically and sits. “Ssssss.” She places her webbed hands on her legs. “Ssssss.”

Molly claps with delight. “Ssssss. It. Sit.”

“Sssss-t.”

“Well done!” Molly claps again. The creature claps. “Clap.” Molly claps once. “Clap.” She claps again.

The creature claps and makes gurgling noises. After several attempts it gives up trying to copy Molly and does clicks instead.

Copying the clicking again Molly claps. “I’ll use your sound.”

Shaking hands wildly the creature makes a different clicking sound, claps, the sound again and claps.

“Mummy?”

Mattie whispers. “I think she might have been saying she can’t say clap earlier. I think..” She does the clicks. “.. might be clap.”

“Oh.”

Danny arrives with Emily. “Hiya gang, what’s.. um.. guys? You do know there’s an odd one out in the room don’t you?”

Emily rolls eyes. “Please excuse my man, he’s a bit of a blonde like me when he wants to be.” She holds out a hand. “I’m Emily.”

Molly giggles. “Emily she can’t speak English. She speaks clicks.”

“Oh. So what did you want Danny for?”

“A translator device.”

Getting in front of their visitor, Danny glances at Mattie. “I don’t speak clicking either so how can I build a translator dictionary?”

Molly holds her left hand out, fingers close together. “Small.” She does the clicks. “One of us can say and headbump the word in English, Lady can make the clicks. Then if it hears those clicks it says Small. If it hears small it does the clicks.”

“Hmm. Listen, wait for a gap, translate. Piece of p.. simple. Give me twenty minutes to wire up a speaker and microphone to a board and I’ll knock up some.. um.. should she be doing that?”

Fred races forwards and catches her as she topples off the bed. “Everyone not here for medical support roles out please! Medical includes you Leo.”

~~~

[Chapter-32](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-32-1)


	31. Chapter 31

[Chapter-33](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-33-1)


	32. Chapter 32

A day later Sophie leans cautiously out of a build machine and sees Laura waiting with clothes. “Hi Mum!”

“Hello darling. I thought you wanted to have an older looking body?”

“I did. I like playing with Fee, Molly, Radiant and Qi. I can be older later, we’ve got loads of time. How’s Tibet?”

“He’s fine, his build finished a short while ago.”

“And Nepal? I was surprised when they said he wanted a new one already.”

Laura shuffles sideways to see another build machine door. “Four minutes and you can ask him.”

“And Ruby?”

Laura walks the other way. “Six minutes.”

“Cool!” Sophie gets back behind the door. “If nobody else is about I’ll change here.”

“Okay Soph.” Clothes are held at the gap. “I’ll keep watch just in case someone comes.”

“Thanks Mum. Mum, just before I had my backup Danny was making a lot of clicking noises. Is he okay?”

“Yes. He’s speaking in our guest’s language.”

“Guest?”

“A lady from the planet.”

“Cool!” Getting dressed is given the highest priority. “Is she pretty?”

Laura hesitates. “In her own way.”

Sophie frowns at the dress spun from red web then pulls it on over the multicoloured jumper. “What do you mean?”

“She’s.. different. You’ll see.”

“Different how Mum?”

“She’s led a very simple life. They watched the ship come into orbit and thought a star had fallen. Then when they saw Tibet they thought he was sent by their gods for their leader to mate with, her partner having died. She tried it on with Tibet, didn’t get very far so then went for Nepal.”

“Oh! If she speaks in clicks how can Danny be speaking the same?”

“Molly. She got him to build a translator board. It listens to English or clicks and says the opposite, automatically learns when words and clicks are said three times in a row. The board sends the dictionary to the ship once an hour. George thinks we can have a solar powered satellite uplink on one of the small islands so that they can learn new words for when Nepal visits.”

“That’s clever. Won’t we ruin their lives?”

“Ruin?”

Pulling on tights, Sophie looks at her dull reflection on the inside of the door. “I bet material things ruined things for a lot of people on Earth before we left. Needing the trainers the other kids had, the latest iPhone, stuff like that.”

“It could. But some things could improve it too. She spends most of her time in the water. Fred with some help from David and George have already made her something.”

“What?” She slips on ballet pumps.

“You’ll see. She’s visiting again in just over an hour.”

Stepping out Sophie does a twirl. “How do I look?”

“Like my Little Mouse.”

“Mummy you’ve not called me that in _ages_.”

“Come give your Mum a hug then.”

~~~

[Chapter-34](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-34-1)


	33. Chapter 33

Nepal helps adjust the straps that held a water tank to the Queen’s back then checks the mask that covered her mouth and nose. “Ready?” A series of clicks can be heard from the mask. Shortly after a second set of clicks follow. Hers. “I am ready man of star and rock.”

Nepal smiles and takes her hand. Molly had been so creative. Getting the other toddlers together they’d done a lot of crayon drawings to help explain how Zero had once been flesh and bone like her. A picture of the sun was slid closer and closer. A stick man made of seaweed and another of broken shell fragments had been used to represent before and after. A symbol drawn by Qi had been moved from one figure to the other to signify the moving of Zero’s mind. It looked to have been grasped immediately. Maybe seeing Tibet’s damaged legs had given her a big hint that they weren’t like her people. The fact he now had fins that could be folded flat when not swimming was also a big giveaway that they were different. Very different. “You’re not going to pass out now.”

“I be good.”

Nepal helps her up the steps into the shuttle. He liked her a lot. The Queen of the Sea People had passed out from lack of oxygen. They could spend brief amounts of time on land sunbathing if they relaxed and kept their breathing very deep to fill their lungs. Exerting themselves or staying out of water for longer was a bad idea as their lungs had adapted to work better in water. She’d done both; exerting herself at the cave pool side with Tibet, spending too long out of water in the medical bay. The blood sample Flash had taken showed how critically low her oxygen levels had fallen. Fred had raced her to a bathroom and drowned her in cold water while Flash oxygenated it with a tank from the medical bay. She’d come around with a big smile on her face, understanding what they’d done. Shortly after, with the help of Danny’s translation board, she’s said Thank You dozens of times.

Inside the shuttle she finds Laura, an excited Sophie, legs also restored, feet tapping away on the floor. “Hello.”

“Hello Your Majesty. I’m Sophie.”

“Hello Princess Sophie.”

“I’m not a princess.”

With the shuttle door closing and sealing a barrage of clicks can be heard. Danny’s code did grammar correction and spoke for her. “You are sister to Mattie and Zero are you not?”

“I am.”

“So you are a princess, as is Molly.”

Laura chuckles. “She’ll like that.”

Laughing too, Sophie does a seated curtsy. “Yes Queen Mother.”

“Shush.”

Nepal takes a seat and starts preflight checks. “If everyone could ensure they’re strapped in properly. I don’t want anyone bouncing off the walls and hurting themselves. Systems A-Okay.” He taps to open the comms channel. “Shuttle Two asking for permission to return to Star Eater.”

Renie replies quickly. “I was about to signal you. Make it a fast and direct flight or head north. A cluster of small meteoroids is heading your way!”

Sophie does a mime.

The Queen pulls at the straps. “I must warn my people!”

Nepal jumps up. “Sit next to me up front, take off your mask for a moment and use the shuttle to relay a warning message.”

“I cannot abandon my people!”

“Right. In which case I’m coming with you. Sophie, take the controls.” He gets the door opening.

“I’m not a skilled pilot!”

“Ask Toby to remote fly it then. Or Molly.”

He unbuckles the Queen and turns to see the Hawkins ladies. “Good luck!” A second later he’s out, the Queen in his arms.

Sophie rolls eyes. “He’s taking his bodyguard role a bit far isn’t he?” She unbuckles and gets to the pilot’s seat, taps once to close the door, a second time to open a new comms channel. It beeps. “Shuttle Two to Toby, requesting emergency remote control to get us back to the ship.”

“Hi Sophie, Renie still here, I’ll get you airborne, Toby can take over in a moment.” There’s vibration and the sound of the engines firing up. “Hold tight.”

Sophie grabs the seatbelt and holds it tight as the shuttle does a fast takeoff. “I hope Nepal wasn’t standing behind us!”

“I’ve got your external cameras tiled on the wall screen here, they’d already got to the water’s edge.”

“Phew! Thanks!” Sophie buckles up. “Has Leo made the new recorder yet?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been on the bridge all week.”

Sophie gets more comfortable. “Don’t you get bored stuck there all day and night?”

“We have our sleep charge moments. And fun.”

“Fun?”

“Remember the dance games you’d get at arcades, where you have to step on the shapes to music? Zero polished the floor until it was really reflective. Veronica puts an image at the bottom of the wall screen, perspective adjusted so the reflection in the floor looks like the game. So far Zero holds the top score. I’m trying to beat her, not letting her win because she’s Zero.”

“Neat! Something like Big Spider Mitch’s colour changing skin could be used to make a real one. Like a giant version of the Mitch Tablets. I’ll ask George.”

“Ha! Just ensure it doesn’t look in anyway spider related. Mitch won’t like seeing people stamp on it. Toby’s replied, I’m handing over.”

“Thanks Renie!”

~~~

[Chapter-35](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-35-1)


	34. Chapter 34

Holding the Queen’s hands in his, arms out and slightly bent, Nepal kicks in the strongest and most efficient way he could, fins out. Her tank and mask was in his spacesuit and tied to his back by the arms and legs. She was allowing him to do all the work, focusing on her clicking.

The front of the pod turns left a little as they swam in the fast currents, using the westbound flow to get them away faster.

She squeezes his hands and click talks. Her late husband had died when hit by a meteoroid fragment many moons ago. The planet was beautiful, but not totally safe from rocks from the sky. There’s a barrage of clicks from up front and the pod splits into many different directions.

Nepal sees absolute terror on the Queen’s face, puts his head back to look forwards. “Oh shit!” Something far bigger was heading their way, mouth open wide. “What is that?” With all the small fish, jellyfish and other things being swept along in front of the pod they hadn’t seen it coming. He hadn’t been using his sonar, hadn’t even thought about other bigger creatures. Unable to swim fast enough some of her pod disappear into the darkness of the beast’s mouth. He lets go of the Queen as she turns to swim against the current. Getting chest forwards he sonar thumps repeatedly as hard as his mechanism will allow. Although the thing slows its advancing, the strong current keeps sweeping everything closer. He increases the rate as their distance drops, the immense mouth taking in jellyfish by the ton, more pod members too. With his device reaching a constant purr of loud sonar thumps the creature shuts its mouth around him. In the darkness lit only by jellyfish he sees the internal structure of the beasts head.

~~~

[Chapter-36](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-36-1)


	35. Chapter 35

Outside and tiring from the swimming the Queen glances off it moments later. Tumbling along its length she click calls out for Nepal, gets no answer. She watches the monster of a fish violently shake and stop swimming. There’s fast clicking from a pod member telling her they’d all reached the end of the underwater mountain range, they were now in the sea of Queen Kelp, a rival pod. The queen and her pod were nowhere to be seen.

With the fast moving current dissipating she manages to get stable and moving again as the beast’s tail gets dangerously close, clicks to her remaining pod members. Swimming eastwards again she gets to the mouth and sees two hands poking out between the lips of the beast. Nepal’s hands! Clicking a message on repeat she gets to the front and tries helping. Others join her. Slowly the mouth opens and a pod member swims free. Nepal slides part way out and bench presses the jaws open, clicks the equivalent of Out! The Queen and others grab the hands of those escaping and help pull them to freedom.

~~~

[Chapter-37](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-37-1)


	36. Chapter 36

Renie sits right back in her chair. “Captain, we’ve received a super high power transmission burst from Nepal.”

“What does it say?”

“Not much. Water jet propulsion. Start build! Bad crush, need to see Queen again.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it. It was sent unencoded and lasted microseconds.”

“He’s got a crush on the queen? Sorry Renie, I thought he and you..”

“I’m a free agent. I’m not limiting myself to one man. If he wants to spend time with her that’s fine. It helps to have good relationships with the pod too so that’s good. Water jet propulsion? I guess that’s something like the scuba gear people used on old Earth. That’s easy to design. A cover made of solar cells would let them charge it on the surface too, no need to plug in. I guess he wants a design and build started PDQ for a gift?”

“Go take a break and see George and Danny. As long as it takes. Then go deliver it.”

“Sure Captain?”

“Sure. You’ve more than earned it Renie. Ruby or Scarlet can take over here. We’re parked, apart from watching out for more meteoroids there’s not exactly a lot going on.”

“Thanks!”

~~~

[Chapter-38](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-38-1)


	37. Chapter 37

[Chapter-39](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-39-1)


	38. Chapter 38

The following morning planet time, Renie steps down the lower half of Shuttle One’s doors onto the black volcanic sand. She smiles at the Queen. “Hello! I’ve been given shore leave. I have a gift for you. Nepal’s idea.” As the translator clicks away she holds out the dark blue scuba jet constructed overnight in a build machine. “I have a swimming costume on so I can demonstrate how the prototype works.” She watches members of the pod crowd around.

With translation failing on unknown words the Queen smiles sympathetically under her mask and looks past Renie to the door. A moment later she steps past Renie and clicks. Her message also fails to translate.

Renie turns to see the Queen had climbed onboard. “Everything okay?”

The Queen gestures. “Up! Up! Up!”

“You want to go to the ship?”

“Star Eater! Up! Up! Up!”

Renie taps her new communications watch. “Zero, the Queen wants to come up to the ship.”

“As long as she’s got her water mask on.”

“See you in a few minutes.”

~~~

[Chapter-40](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-40-1)


	39. Chapter 39

A quarter of an hour later the Queen of the Sea People runs her hand down the wall by Sophie’s bedroom door and clicks. “Smooth.”

Sophie glances at Renie. “Back in a tick!”

Renie watches Sophie run to the toilet. “Your majesty, what is your name?”

There’s clicks as she places a hand. “Renie.” The hand is moved to herself. “Sun. Up.”

“Sun up?” Renie does a mime with fist hidden by a flat hand, the fist slowly rising above it. “Like this?” The Queen nods. “We call this _Sunrise_.” There’s clicks and hand gestures to repeat the word. “Sunrise.” Clicks. “Sunrise.” Clicks. “Sunrise.” Clicks.

Sophie returns. “Sorry, I’d been needing to make the time to do something.”

Renie does her mine again, this time making the sun rise and set, rise again. “Time?” There’s a load of clicks and the gesture. The word is repeated to get in the dictionary.

The Queen rests against the wall and clicks. “Sunrise time for Nepal.”

Renie whispers to Sophie. “Sunrise is her name.”

“Yayy! You have a name! I like Sunrise! Sunrise, would you like to come to the spa? I’ve not had a customer in _ages_.” Sunrise gives her an odd look, the translation again missing words. “Let me show you.” She holds out a hand and smiles.

~~~

[Chapter-41](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-41-1)


	40. Chapter 40

Ruby looks up at the left corner of the wall screen on the bridge. It had just updated. “For a species living in the ocean with few possessions they sure are advanced. Look at the size of the dictionary now.”

“Hmm?” Zero looks up from her console. “Blimey that’s jumped! If we could invent a time machine I’d go and apologise to the dolphins and others. Too many humans thought they were the only truly intelligent species in the universe, boy is she proving us wrong. I’m just glad they’re not a War of The Worlds type wanting a fight. What’s been added most recently?” The screen updates. “Sunrise and Time. As you said, advanced. Humans thought the Earth was the center of the universe for ages. I wonder if they do too?”

Ruby spins the chair around to see Zero. “We could invite her up here and show her footage of us entering their star system?”

“And have a mind blown? Maybe we should go a little slower, see if she starts asking questions. She’s had big enough surprises already.”

Ruby turns to face the screen again. “I heard it was Niska and Astrid that worked out how to unstick her. Have they said how they did it?”

“Not even to me. I think it’s something they’ll keep secret forever.”

~~~

[Chapter-42](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-42-1)


	41. Chapter 41

Sunrise steps slowly into the spa’s pool towards Renie, runs her hands over the surface of the water. She’d never experienced still warm water before. Nothing anywhere near this temperature. It was like being in the sea and sunbathing on the sun warmed volcanic sand at the same time. This was.. she had no word for this yet. This was new. It had her heart beating as fast as when she’d first seen Tibet and Nepal.

Renie beckons her closer, holds the scuba jet up and points to the two large buttons, one on each hand grip by the base of the thumb. Holding it just under the surface she squeezes them getting the motor spin up. “It pulls.”

Sunrise clicks. “Word?”

“Pull.” Renie takes her hand and gently pulls. “Pull.” She changes direction. “Push.” Sunrise nods, clicks two words, puts a hand out for the scuba jet. It’s handed over. “Okay. Take it easy, don’t go too fast.”

Sunrise holds it like Renie had under the water, grips the thing hard and gets yanked forwards. She screams with delight.

Renie does a closing hand grip in the air with increasing noise to say it was grip sensitive.

A few seconds later with her balance recovered Sunrise tries again and gets the motor spinning slowly. She drops into the water and lets it tow her along. At the deep end she turns and grips hard, is back at the shallow end seconds later. Standing she clicks a lot, the translator beeps for a mass of unknown words. Smiling she goes to hand it back to Renie. “Thank you.”

“It’s not mine, it’s for you.” She backs up. “A gift.”

“Word?”

“Um.. any ideas Sophie?”

“For gift? Um.. how to mime gift. Um.. I know! Pretend you’re Sunrise and I’m Nepal. Give me the jet.”

“Okay?” Renie hands it over and touches her chest. “Sunrise.”

Sophie does the same. “Nepal.” Touching her head she goes from emotionless to inspired expression wise, waves hands around her head. “Idea!” She makes a humming buzzing sound, pretends to make the thing. Pointing to the scuba jet she touches then points. “Nepal Sunrise gift.” She hands it back to it’s intended owner. “For Sunrise.”

Sunrise thinks for a moment, lets go of the device. “Big fish.” She turns and with her arms mock swims. Over the next minute she acts out swimming with her pod and what happened.

~~~

[Chapter-43](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-43-1)


	42. Chapter 42

Laura knocks on Sophie’s bedroom door. “Soph? Are you there?” Waiting for a moment she checks her nails. Still immaculate. There’s no reply. Bedroom, restaurant, cargo levels where she liked to ride a Segway or palette truck, library and observation deck had now been checked. She could headbump over the ship’s WiFi and get an answer far faster, but sometimes it was nice to do things old school. It helped pass the time too.

She turns at the sound of running and sees an excited Leo racing towards her. “Leo?”

He brushes past her and gets to his bedroom door. Turning briefly he throws her a smile. “Hello Laura.”

“What’s the rush?”

“You’ll see. If I can get something working.”

“What sort of something?”

He opens the door and steps into the bedroom. “If I said it wouldn’t be a surprise.”

A split second later a klaxon goes off and Zero shouts over the tannoy. “Everyone who’s free to the bridge please! Frigging Urgent!”

Leo steps backwards out of the room and pulls the door to. “Now what?”

“Let’s go see. She sounded stressed.”

“And that’s not like her, not these days.” He walks fast to the lift and hits the call button, holds the door open for Laura. “Ladies first.”

“Thank you Leo.” She steps inside and gets her back to the back wall, holds the handrail on either side. “I hear you hacked the lift to travel at higher speeds. Let’s see what you can do.”

Leo holds a finger over an icon for a couple of seconds, taps a code into the virtual keyboard that appears. “Hold tight, rerouting and prioritisation running.”

Laura does a little squeak of surprise as the lift accelerates at breakneck speed upwards. “Don’t repeat this to anyone, but if I hadn’t clenched my sphincter as you touched the panel I think my food processor waste would have emptied.”

Leo chuckles. “A new description for an old problem. Did you feel your ankles swell as the synth fluid rushed to your feet?”

“And a pressure drop around my cores. Not enough to cause a system failure, just a short lived temperature spike.”

Watching the panel for a few seconds, Leo grins. “Hold tight, a hard deceleration and change of direction in three.. two.. one.” The lift’s drive train makes a horrible high pitch pulsed whining noise as it slows the carriage fast, moves it sideways, slows again then rockets upwards. “We’re on the track to the bridge now.”

“So, Leo, how long have you loved rides on fast rollercoasters and what happens if one comes off the tracks?”

A boyish grin replaces his serious look. “I’ve checked the designs, run simulations, it’s physically impossible. Unless of course..” the lift decelerates hard. “.. part of the ship was missing.” The doors open. “We’re here.”

Zero turns to see. “Leon?”

“Leo.”

“You’re the first here. Hi Mum. Before she went on shore leave Renie implemented a simple image difference idea I gave her, just in case things could slip through the long range scanners again. Something has.” She points.

Stepping out of the beeping lift, Laura folds arms. “What is it?”

“We’re not detecting any radio emissions, can’t see it properly with the star behind it. Knowing the distance between the cameras that can see it, Ruby’s been able to triangulate and calculate speed and approximate size. If the meteoroid shower was the advance party then that’s the heavy artillery.”

Ruby changes the image from live feed to computer render. “If our ship is Star Eater, this thing’s Planet Killer. By my calculations it won’t strike directly, it’ll smash into the side of one of the planet’s moons sending it spinning into the planet like a crafty snooker shot. It’ll cause earthquakes, tsunamis, lots more volcanic activity, strip a lot of the atmosphere.”

“Not good.” Leo steps closer to the screen as the doors open to the next lift carriage. “What’s it’s ETA Ruby?”

“One fifty three hours or thereabouts.”

“So we have to evacuate the Queen and her people in six days and get away.” There’s a mass of clicking getting Leo turning. “Your majesty, I hadn’t realised it was you.” The now towel wrapped trio of spa users enter the bridge.

Sophie gives the render a head tilt. “Her name is Sunrise. Is it an asteroid?”

Zero stands. “We think so Sophie. Heading our way and big. Very big. We need to do something quickly as it’s due in a little over six days. So far the options we have are these. We send a shuttle under remote control loaded with hopefully enough explosives to blow the thing to kingdom come. We evacuate the planet and flee, find a new one. Or we get as much of our equipment onto the surface of the planet as possible and send Star Eater at it on a course that will push it out onto a different path. Hopefully not wreck the ship too much.”

“Abandon ship? And what happens when the asteroid’s new orbit brings it back around later and hits the planet?”

“I didn’t say it was a great option Sophie, only that it was one. Maybe it would buy time if the other options don’t work? That’s just three, maybe someone can come up with others?” The doors open again and a packed lift empties. “Ruby, would you mind putting all that on the screen so I don’t have to keep repeating myself?”

“Sure.”

Renie steps to her console. “Mind if I double check the math?”

Ruby types fast. “Not at all. Give me a few more seconds.. Done. All yours.” She slides out the other side. “I had to triangulate all the positions relative to Star Eater. I’ve entered what the asteroid is doing, the moon obits we’ve witnessed, the planet’s rotation wobble, the orbits of the other planets in the system and their estimated masses. I don’t think I missed anything but then astrophysics isn’t my specialty.”

Renie sits. “No. It’s not.” She quickly studies formulas and numbers. “Even still I’d say you’ve done a great job.” She types fast. “I’d have come up with an answer very similar I think. Only.. eighty three meters difference. Which given the size of the asteroid and the moon in question isn’t enough of a margin to celebrate. If the moon got knocked out of orbit rather than into the planet it would disrupt the tides which could be just as bad long term. If we evacuate Queen Sunrise’s people where do they live? They can’t all fit in the spa pool and we couldn’t feed them long. Finding another planet could take many lifetimes.” She looks up at the screen. “If we blow the asteroid up how big will the fragments be? A tenth of that thing would still cause planet wide destruction.”

Toby puts a hand up. “Do we know what it’s made of Zero?”

“Not yet. Don’t do that, we’re not in school.”

“Any way we can find out?”

“Pass. Anyone?”

Sunrise was now up close to the wall screen, running a hand over the high resolution LED. Eye up very close she sees the individual red, green, blue and white pixels. She clicks “Tie knee.”

Danny frowns. “When did tiny get in the dictionary? I don’t recall seeing that one.”

Ruby looks up at the corner. “It didn’t. My guess she’s heard someone say tiny and is using sounds like. Tie. Knee. Nepal tied cords under his knees remember?”

“Nice one! Very smart.”

Sophie does a wonky pout, her tell that serious thought was occurring. “LEDs. What are they exactly Danny?”

“Electroluminescence? A semiconductor that emits light when electricity flows through it. Why?”

“The crystal by the lava, could that be made of semiconductor?”

“I’ve no idea what they’re made of without getting my hands on some Soph. Again, why?”

“If we can make a super bright torch we could see the asteroid better. Maybe figure out if it’s hard rock or frozen ice?”

“Right! We could grow our own crystals, not in the time we’ve got though.”

Zero’s gaze lands on Toby. “Fancy taking a shuttle and getting us a sample?”

“Sure. On it.” He heads to the lift and has to step back as the next carriage empties. “Hi Mia. I’m heading down to the surface, fancy being my copilot?”

“If that’s okay with Zero?”

Zero waves to shoo them both away. “If you see what looks like different types get samples from each. Dozer, can you get Toby a hammer please?”

Dozer stands still forcing others to exit the lift sideways. “Oh. Okay. For?”

“Chipping off crystal samples.”

“A rock hammer then. Okay.”

Zero frowns. “You have one?”

“Frank brought at least one of every tool he could. Which admittedly wasn’t as many as he’d have liked but that was on the list. Want a hand Toby?”

“Sure.”

“Can Louise come along?”

Toby looks to Zero and gets a nod. “Yes. Suit up and meet us at the airlock ASAP.”

Dozer does a one eighty and smiles at Frank. “Is our shipping container locked Frank?”

“No.”

Sophie gets closer to Zero and whispers. “Can you start a build please.”

“Of what and for who?”

“We got it wrong. Nepal didn’t _have_ a crush. He _was_ crushed. By a big fish!”

“Frigging hell! That body wasn’t even a day old! Another build starting in a few minutes. Did they recover his core?”

“No.”

~~~

[Chapter-44](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-44-1)


	43. Chapter 43

[Chapter-45](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-45-1)


	44. Chapter 44

An hour and a half later Frank was sat in his shipping container with Danny. Using a sharpened chisel he was splitting bits of crystal into rough wafers. “How’s this Son?”

“That’s good Dad. Let’s see.” He slides it into a simple printed holder that clamps down at two points at the edge. A big rheostat is turned to allow increasing current to flow. “Nothing yet.” The thing’s turned more. There’s a super bright light and splintering sound. “Bollocks!” He waits for his optical system’s overload to pass. Finally he sees something other that pure white everywhere. “Another one failed. It lasts no time at all.” He turns and taps a thick tablet. “Toby, how’s it going down there?”

Mia answers. “Danny, Toby’s gone down into the cave to get another sample, he’s spotted something different.”

“Good. This lot are all useless, they don’t last more than a millisecond.”

“Zero says Mario and Peaches have taken Shuttle Two over to another volcano in case they can find something there.”

“Exactly what I’d have done. But then he is my forking brother. How’s the heat down there?”

“He says it’s intense as predicted. Dozer’s got a pump showering him in cold seawater to keep his core safe.”

“Good.”

Emily steps up to the container doors. “How’s it going Dan my man?”

“Rubbish. The fucking things last a millisecond then crack.”

“But you get light?”

“Yeah, lots of that. Not long enough for a torch.”

She strikes a saucy pose. “Flash?”

“We need a torch we can point in the right direction. Not a one shot.”

“Disco babes? Make a load of them, fire them in rapid succession. Like a strobe.”

“Oooh! Nice thinking! If we stuck them to a suitable mount we could load them like rounds in a chain fed machine gun. Awesome! Mia, get Toby out of there, ask him to come back with as much of the dark green one as possible and a sample of whatever he’s just found. We have a Plan B. Scrub that, it’s Plan E for Emily.”

~~~

[Chapter-46](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-46-1)


	45. Chapter 45

Toby stops hammering and looks up towards the daylight. “Say that again?”

“Danny wants us back. With a sample of what you’ve just found and as much of the dark green one as we can carry.”

“Okay.” He aims the hammer at the base of the small but perfectly formed orange crystal and taps hard. “Got it. It calves perfectly.”

“Isn’t that what glaciers do?”

“Yeah. I’m coming up.” He pockets the small crystal and grabs a very large dark green one by the bottom. “Dozer, grab the end of this please mate.” He watches Dozer hand the hose to Mia. “It’s heavy.”

~~~

[Chapter-47](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-47-1)


	46. Chapter 46

Danny had stepped out of the container and now sat at his table outside. On it sat his laptop and a 3D printer, using a recycled plastic filament spun by small Mitch to make crystal wafer holders. No matter how many times he reminded himself about spinnerets he couldn’t help but think ‘This stuff came out of a spider’s bum’.

Sitting cross legged on a stool, Emily flicks her hair back. “Babes you need contacts like the wires on the bottom of a Scalextric car, maybe with a spring to increase the contact pressure?”

Danny adjusts the loaded CAD model. “Okay. Like this then. Mitch, can you switch from plastic to silver?”

“Can I! Who’s letting me at silver?”

“Fred will in a moment once I’ve cleared it with Zero.”

Mitch does an excited run in a tight circle. “I’ve not been allowed silver for a long time. Getting in a strop and locking her in a room with what I thought was no way out all those months ago was a bad idea.”

“I know. I’ve heard the stories.”

Mitch stops turning around and looks at the design on screen. “Why the wedge shaped slot?”

“It’ll be sprung from above so the silver braid contacts get a gradual pressure increase. The tile enters from the more open end, exits the narrow end. It’s a sprung upper part to help ensure it never jams.”

“Good idea. You said braid. Can you draw how you want the silver to come out?”

“Sure. It’s like some of the rope you and Big Mitch make only flat.”

“Flat rope?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve never seen that before.”

Toby comes running. “Dan! Check this beauty out! I dropped it on the shuttle steps, it didn’t even chip.”

Dan accepts the orange crystal. “Nice colour! Sandra would love it.” He looks at the soft rock at the bottom. “It’s totally intact? It’s a shame to break it, it’s so perfect.”

Frank steps out of the container. “It would make a nice night light if it glows.”

“Yeah, it would. Nature creates some beautiful things.”

Toby pulls a stool over and sits. “Being in the cave is like standing in a giant geode.”

Playing with her hair again Emily smiles. “You were. Shame we can’t grab the whole thing.”

Getting up, Danny turns the crystal over and over. “If this cracks like the others I’ll be gutted. I’ll turn the dial really slowly.” Stepping into the container he finds two thin slivers of packing crate, places them either side of the base of the crystal and winds the large metalwork vice down to hold them. “Dad, mind holding contacts on?”

“Okay.”

Toby nods at the rheostat. “What’s that mate?”

Danny follows his gaze. “My variable power supply? It’s a long winding of thick resistance wire around a hoop. It’s got ground at one end, the high voltage at the other. There’s a contact behind the dial. I turn it to pick up increasing voltage from the wire.” Danny moves it slowly up from the zero position. “Tobs, shut the container mate, in the dark we’ll see even the slightest of glows.”

Toby steps inside. “Good idea.” Doors pulled closed he stands with his back to them. “Buzz, Mav, Wrench and Elon have taken Shuttle Three to see if they can find other pods, mammals or birds. They’ve nicknamed it the arc. Plan Z.”

“Good luck with that. That brings back memories. A kid I went to school with had a dad working at a bank. He wanted to get out and do something less stressful, got a small farm. He thought he’d do well selling quail eggs. After buying heat lamps and fifty birds he watched them humping for ages. Not a single egg was laid. It helps to not have fifty male birds and no females.”

“He had gay quail?”

“Highly frustrated quail. Ooh, that’s a nice glow! Good call Dad!”

“Thanks son. Does it go any brighter?”

“Maybe a tiny bit?”

There’s suddenly a very bright orange light on the shipping container ceiling and molten metal drips down from the edge of a hole. In shock Frank had removed a contact plunging them into near darkness, the only light now coming in from the new hole. “Dan? Toby? Are you okay lads?”

Toby takes a step back forcing the doors open. “What the hell just happened?”

Danny grins. “Toby mate! I think you found the world’s first natural laser! Were there any more?”

“Yeah, further in through a narrow opening. A few big ones too.”

A klaxon goes off, Zero comes on the ship-wide tannoy. “We’ve got pressure drop reports coming in from a number of decks, we’re leaking air! Possibly a frigging fast meteor strike.”

Danny headbumps. ‘Sorry Zero, that was me. We’ve just accidentally found something that could help with the big asteroid. We’ll get a patch kit.’

‘What have you found?’

‘Come down to the cargo bay outside the airlock and I’ll show you.’

~~~

[Chapter-48](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-48-1)


	47. Chapter 47

[Chapter-49](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-49-1)


	48. Chapter 48

A little over four hours later, Toby, Danny, Frank, Dozer, Tibet and George were stood by the build machines.

George had done a new minimalist design, printed in draft mode up to the neck. “Be mentally prepared for them. They definitely won’t look human. There’s no synth fluid to freeze in space, so they need to get to the airlock and out into the cold of space in a hurry once walking. We don’t want their tiny core to overheat.”

Toby nudges Danny. “What’s your guess? Terminator, Clone Wars fighter, Battle Angel..”

“Molly or Qi’s stick man.”

“LOL! Our daughters could draw masterpieces like Mia if they wanted to.”

“Yeah. They’re not stupid mate. Sophie’s the same. Apart from being responsible for the Spa none of them have any chores assigned at the moment if you hadn’t noticed.”

“It hadn’t occurred to me. I don’t mind tending Mia’s planters, I quite enjoy it.” A door to a build machine breaks its airtight seal and opens. He snorts. “Jonny Five? Minus the caterpillar tracks. Seriously George?”

“You’ve never seen a stripped down James Mark One have you?”

Tibet runs a hand over his head. “I have. On the battlefield. Nasty. All fantasy in one of the simulated worlds but it felt real. Removable core in the chest George?”

“No. A fixed micro core to make room for all the radio equipment. There’s no memory in there, other than to run the server code. You’ve all practiced in the simulations, it’s time to show me what you can do. Who’s first?”

Tibet takes a step forwards. “I’d like to if it’s okay with the others. I lost some good friends to enemy junkers. Simulated or not.”

George chin taps the remote control biped. “You should see a new droid service name to pair with in a moment. The boot code will make it take five steps forwards and stop, wait for your connection.”

Tibet steps and turns, gets ready to stand behind it. “Pairing.” The droid takes the steps as other build machines start to open. “See you at the airlock door lads.” He walks off, the thing copying his moves perfectly.

Scratching his head Toby looks around. “What if our stride length is different George?”

“Pause the link and catch up or fall back.”

“Okay. I’ll go next. Okay lads?”

Frank smiles. “It looks like we all can. They’re ready.”

~~~

[Chapter-50](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-50-1)


	49. Chapter 49

Down by the airlock Sandra was stood in her now trademark orange jumpsuit and heals doing a salute. Zero had told her that troops liked a mascot or pinup. Some had a goat, some a good looking gal and with the crystal being orange it just had to be her. The lift doors open and the first droid and synth pair steps out. “Hello Tibet.”

“Reporting for duty Mam!”

“At ease soldier.” She ends the salute and slinks over. “Which crystal cannon would you like?”

“The biggest. I want Sunrise to be safe, for Nepal. I want to obliterate that asteroid and all the many fragments it makes.” With his own senses and motor controls disabled he gets the droid stepping to a table and picks up the weapon. It was super simple; a mirror at one end, large battery, power inverter and trigger switch. “I’m calling this one Sandra in your honour.”

Sandra plays with her zip for a moment, steps to the droid and kisses the crystal. “For good luck. Smash it to pieces. I like Sunrise too. Would you tell me the glue solution if Nepal had shared it with you?

“Sorry, never.”

“Good. I didn’t really want you to, I wanted to know you’re prepared to keep secrets. She lowers the zip to the bottom, her belly button now showing. On two gold waist chains hung two tiny orange crystals. “They’re perfect. A gift from Mia.”

“From Mia?”

“My root fork sister.” She pulls one around her waist and undoes the clasp. “Take one, give it to Nepal to give to Sunrise as a sign of his love.”

“Thanks! Sometimes I forget you took over the body Mia. Fancy so many synths not wanting to live when Mattie uploaded the consciousness code. Still, our gain.”

“I was Mia, I’m Sandra now.” The zip is pulled up fast as the lift bings. “Our secret.”

“Our secret. Thanks again.” He drops it into a pocket. “They’ll love it. It’s beautiful.”

“As is Sunrise.”

Tibet didn’t agree, his idea of beauty was quite different to his brother’s, despite them being fork twins. “Each to their own gorgeous.”

Toby does a quick shuffle step to catch up with his droid. “Sods law you picked the big one Tibet. Trying to compensate for something?”

“Me? No. I’ve now got a dick that would make a horse run in fear. I just want to blow that asteroid out of the park for Nepal, Sunrise and her pod.”

“You and me both mate. Hopefully many shots from a smaller one will do as much damage as a few from your one.” His drone wobbles as he picks a heavy weapon up. “Balance is a bitch a when you’ve got radio control lag.”

Buzz steps out of the lift fully suited, helmet visor up. “Let’s do this. I’m flying you all within what I’m told is shooting range in Shuttle Three.” He watches Sandra quickly kiss more crystals. “Were any synths ever hippies? Some girls were mad about the power of crystals when I was a young lad.”

~~~

[Chapter-51](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-51-1)


	50. Chapter 50

On the bridge Zero, Mattie, Ruby, Scarlet, Renie, Emily and Mia watch the live feed from a camera George, Leon and Danny had rushed out. It had pressurised tanks it could use to shoot jets of water to help it turn. George would have preferred ion thrusters from the ongoing satellite design but time was against them. It would be deployed by Buzz a few hundred kilometres in front of the asteroid and let them watch progress from a different angle.

Seeing the group of static men reminds Mia of waking up in the Persona warehouse. “This brings back memories. Good luck Toby.” Watching the droids step through the airlock gap she smiles. “Good luck all of you.” The door closes. “We need this planet as much as Sunrise does. For our sanity if nothing else.”

Mattie turns to see who was entering the bridge. “Leo, Leon, what are you looking so happy for?”

Leon motions to Leo. “It’s your discovery, you tell them.”

“We have a couple of reasons. We’re glad the droids are working. As it’ll be a while before they reach the deployment spot we did some checks. My theory is right. We had a missing cargo floor.”

Zero gives him her full attention. “You what?”

“The cargo deck floors move up and down so supplies could be brought in from the airlock level and taken up for storage.”

“You’re telling me something I already know.”

He looks at the turned faces. “That was more for everyone else’s benefit. I’d been on the deck with the shipping crates of dead batteries, getting them closer to the lift so we can recycle the lithium. I noticed where the ceiling was in relation to the closed inactive lift doors. The ceiling is too low.”

“Too low?”

“Too low. I checked a few things out, all unused floors should be stacked below the airlock floor in the dead space. Using an access ladder we just counted them. There’s one missing. We have two floors one point two meters apart.”

Zero frowns. “But the numbers on each of them..”

“May have been tampered with.”

“Frig. Why would anyone do that?”

“No idea. With your permission I’d like to find out.”

Turning to look at the screen she bites her lip. “It’s going to be a while until they get there. I’ll join you both. Mattie, coming?”

“Um, sure. See you in a bit ladies.”

Leon hits the lift button, gets an immediate door open. “Good, the priority code still works.”

“Lover?”

He smiles at Zero. “The lift at the bridge is called away as a last resort unless other carriages with passengers need to do drop offs. If lifts are idle I have them queue up near the bridge, airlock and sleeping levels. Like a taxi rank for a faster service.”

“Aww, a considerate hacker. We should get Mitch to spin you up a silver fedora.”

“With my hair? Thanks but I’ll pass.” He taps the lift control and leans against the lift wall. “We’ll not race downwards, that can be quite unpleasant. Can’t it Leo?”

“Very. Porridge oats with soya milk takes some washing back down.”

Grimacing, Mattie shakes her head slowly. “You boys and speed. Will that never change?”

“I am your Energiser Bunny. I’ve got a reputation to uphold.” The lift slows. “Almost there.”

“Already?”

“Optimised acceleration and deceleration. You didn’t notice the change?”

“No.” The doors open to reveal closed doors. “Um, what next?”

Leo forces the outer doors open. “I was right! Leon, give us a leg up.”

Zero puts her head back. “Fork off! I’m not crawling into that! We’ll get the lower one lowered a bit more and one above raised. This isn’t frigging Being John Malkovich! It’s in the ship’s archives if anyone wants a watch. Maybe it was the inspiration for all this. If it was or not I’d rather walk in than crawl.” She headbumps to the bridge, a few seconds later the floors start separating more, the lights in the ceiling of the upper deck section come on illuminating the space. She picks an envelope off the floor. “To Mattie?” Inside is a note. “Hello me. I hope Mitch’s spider writing is legible. After so many things in life going so right something had to bring the balance back. James One would call it a cluster-fuck of biblical proportions. If you found this one of my forks only went and solved the unsolvable. Love, you.”

Mattie had strolled ahead and gasps. “What the frig.. Those things on the right Leo, back about ten meters, they look like NASA1 and NASA2, the monster digital archives from the factory by the lake.”

Zero races over. “This isn’t right! I had no factory by a lake in my world!”

Leo squats down and looks at the dirty finger prints by the edges, still there from the day it was brought onboard. He looks up and around. “What about that architects scale model of the London Pyramid? We didn’t have that in ours.”

Leon opens a box. “Madam President. We sure didn’t have that in ours.” He picks up a commemorative photo and looks at the things underneath. “Matilda Elizabeth Elster-Hawkins. Earth President. Sworn in March first two thousand and fifty five. Holy shit! I’d bet you did the lot! And sliced and diced the memories for passing to the many copies you made.”

Zero sits heavily, tears rolling. Sobbing starts. “It’s all a lie Leon, I didn’t do any of that. I couldn’t have.”

“Think about it. The year, you’d have been in your late fifties. You could have done it all easily. Knowing you with one hand tied behind your back. You probably tweaked the odd thing here and there to make it fit the narrative for each world you created.”

Mattie opens a fat small suitcase marked with initials. “ _Frigging Hell!_ Come see this!” Leon and Leo join her. “I could be wrong, but this looks like one of those things you see in movies, carried around by the President’s security. The sort of thing someone uses to give launch codes to nuclear missiles.”

Leo gives it a good looking at up close. “No fingerprints or dust marks of any kind. It’s never been used.”

“Thank fuck! I don’t think I could live with myself if I had!” Zero wipes her eyes. “So Mattie, Mats, Scarlett and the others aren’t just forks, their fragments? Fragments of my much longer life?”

Leon returns to the box he’d looked in earlier and chuckles. “Definitely. Some things need to be kept secret. Laura in her old grandma years with you and Ruby.” He holds up a photo. “Zero?”

“Frigging hell’s bells! Mum must have got back on the cigarettes big time! Look at her face! Jesus! Shred that please. She doesn’t need to see it. Ever.”

“You and Ruby look good though.” Another photo is found. “Your Dad with white hair and a long ginger beard?”

“LOL! He should have shaved it off or got some hair dye. Also for the shredder. They’ll never get to that age. Not looks wise.” She watches Leon rapidly flick through more, slide one into a pocket. “What’s that one?”

“Private. I think you should be the one to go through all these boxes Zero. True Root Mattie. This is evidence of all your many many lifetime achievements, the memories from which you built all the worlds. You must have done something drastic to wipe it from your mind.”

She wipes cheeks. “I must have. I don’t want to do this on my own though. I want us four to do it. If you wouldn’t mind?”

Mattie sits and places a hand on hers. “I’d be honoured. Fellow fragment.”

Zero does a sniff and laugh. “There’s a new one. Was it a figment of my imagination or a fragment of my memory?”

Leo has a moment of realisation. “Um.. Zero. I’ve walked through other worlds in the simulations. As a ghost, never visible to them. How could Hobb have died so many different ways?”

She shrugs. “Maybe he was a cat with nine lives? More likely I just took pleasure in having a villain to wipe out. There’s zombie shell avatars in the worlds remember. I’ve never said I’m perfect. Come on, what was the photo?”

Leon thinks about it for a while. “Okay. Try not to cry too much. You will cry.” The photo’s handed over.

“Oh my God!” Tears flow again. “Molly!”

Mattie frowns, puts a hand out. “Can I see?” Zero waves it in her general direction, unable to see with her tear tank emptying at a hitherto unheard of rate. She takes it and turns it right way up. “Oh no! Thankfully that’s never going to happen here.”

Leo moves to see. “Poor kid. Spina bifida?”

“Maybe Bunny. She looks worn out, fighting to carry on. Poor kid. Can you put a security override on the floors and lifts to prevent anyone but us four coming in here?”

“Sure. What’s the passphrase going to be?”

“Um.. Many fragments make a whole?” She squeezes Zero’s hand again. “I think we need to update the dictionary entry for Badass. No words, just a photo. Of you.”

“Ha. I wonder what age I was when I came onboard? I definitely wasn’t the age I was in the simulations.”

~~~

[Chapter-52](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-52-1)


	51. Chapter 51

Buzz gets out of the shuttle’s pilot seat and heads to the rear door, lowers his visor, slides the lock sideways until he gets a voice confirmation that the internal pressure was good. “Thank you suit.” Door opened he picks up the camera and waves at the lens. “Hello Star Eater crew! I wish I had something like this for my moon landing, not just a Hasselblad. Off she goes!” Doing a slow and steady underarm throw he gets it out of the shuttle.

He’d taken the decision to ignore Renie’s flight plan. Instead of low to medium burn there and back he’d done a full burn for a good while, getting the maximum speed out of the shuttle. If needed they’d crawl back on a slow pulsed burn, job done. All of the men behind the droids had voted yes, they needed to know the plan was good. If it failed they’d have more time for the next. Just minus one astronaut and a shuttle.

“Okay men, time to bail out. I’ll turn the shuttle around with thrusters and slow the old girl down. Good luck!” He steps back to get out of the way as the droids all file out. They should have had labels, paint, scarves of loved ones, something. He had no idea which was being controlled by whom apart from Tibet with the biggest of the crystals. He leans out of the shuttle to wave goodbye and gets something small puncture the arm of his suit. “Damnit!”

Back inside and door closed a moment later he opens up a locker, finds the skin packs. “Suit, do skin packs work on you?”

“I’m sorry Buzz, I have no data on the use of skin packs on anything other than synthetics.”

“Don’t worry. I’m inside. Let me turn around then I’ll patch up.”

~~~

[Chapter-53](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-53-1)


	52. Chapter 52

[Chapter-54](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-54-1)


	53. Chapter 53

Back on the bridge with a dry face Zero watches the live feed. “Why do old men get so bloody stubborn!”

Renie looks at the screen semi-sideways on with arms angrily crossed. “You spend the cycles to work out the most optimal fuel burn to get them there reasonably quickly and have enough fuel to get back just as fast and he goes and does it his way. By my calculations that was a suicide mission and we’ve lost a shuttle. He’ll have run out of fuel, will freeze to absolute zero well before he reaches us. If the shuttle freezes for the length of time I’ve calculated the batteries will be useless, it would need a major overhaul if we were able to tow it back with one of the other shuttles.”

“Hmm. Maybe that’s his hope? That he’ll get a tow back?”

Ruby watches tiny flashes of light on the asteroid. “What happened to lighting the thing up so we can work out what it’s made of?”

Zero gives her a wonky sarcastic smile. “Stubborn and impatient? Men. It wasn’t ready and they wanted to leave in a hurry with their new toys. Why did all the science fiction films show lasers shooting lines of light? We can’t see anything except for what I guess is the crystal flashing and the light landing on the laser. This is dead boring. Who fancies watching some old TV from the archives? Vote with a show of hands ladies.” All hands go up. “Good. Let’s see what we’ve not watched a thousand times already.” Looking down to look at the display in her chair she sees the reflection in the floor change and looks back up. “What was that? Scarlet, you look like you were facing the screen.”

“A big fireball.”

“From?”

“The asteroid Zero.”

“So it’s made of something flammable?”

Scarlet shrugs. “It looks that way. Or at least parts of it.” A series of explosions can be seen on the screen. “Ooh! Nice colours!” The orange flashes increase in frequency. “I guess that’s them doing the fragment cleanup? Hardly the fantastic light show we were expecting. I vote Friends, season eight.”

Zero looks around the group. “Anyone got any other suggestions? No? Okay, get comfortable.”

~~~

[Chapter-55](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-55-1)


	54. Chapter 54

Toby watches a trigger switch being pulsed at a super high rate. ‘Did you have a bump stock when you were in the army Tibet?’

‘I’ve always been a synth, have a fast finger.’

‘How fast?’

‘Fast.’ Another explosion in the distance sends fragments in all directions. ‘Watch.’ The droid twitches legs a little then freezes getting his torso turning ever so slightly with the momentum. A continuous strobe of orange pulses are fired across the largest chunk.

‘Yeah. You’re fast mate. I don’t think I could come close to that rate. But you do know you can keep your finger on the trigger and fire a continuous beam until the target is destroyed?’

‘Eh?’

‘It fires laser beams mate, not bullets.’

Tibet stops firing and turns his head. ‘Danny said it fires photons?’

‘Yes mate, light. Photons are light. It can fire a constant beam of light. So perfectly parallel that you can’t see it until it hits something.’

‘Nice of someone to tell me! So all this time I could have just held the button down?’

Toby’s droid does a nod. ‘Until the thing you’re firing at has absorbed more energy than it can cope with and burns, melts or explodes, yeah.’

‘Okay! We’re wiping the scoreboard clean, starting again. Beam you say?’

‘Beam. How can I.. Imagine you’ve got a very very long invisible paint brush.’

‘And I’m painting like Qi?’

‘With light. Only your light makes things burn, melt or explode as I said. Thanks for mentioning my daughter, most would say Molly.’

‘Qi’s the more artistic painter if you ask me, she takes after her mother.’ Tibet writes Sunrise in a joined up script on the front of the asteroid, still many thousands of miles away. ‘For my brother. How’s that for accuracy?’

‘Synthly the best! You’re better than all the rest. All the damage we’ve inflicted on it looks to have slowed it down a little. Would you agree?’

‘I would Toby.’ There’s another explosion and bits fly. ‘George put some very good optics in these bodies. It would be nice to have vision this good in our normal ones.’

‘Mate! We’d need heads almost twice the size! Not a good look. And our cores would need to go back in our chests. Would you really want to see Sunrise in that much detail, scars and all?’

‘Toby? What do you mean?’

‘Our synth eyes are good. I reckon Nepal’s blinded by love. She sunbathes on rough rocks, that’s got to have done some damage.’

‘On behalf of my brother la la la I’m not listening!’

‘LOL Mate! Now that’s definitely a Qi saying!’ There’s another explosion in the distance any the asteroid starts spinning. ‘What the..’

‘Ceasefire! Ceasefire!’

~~~

[Chapter-56](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-56-1)


	55. Chapter 55

Zero does a deep chuckle. “Some things never age.” She thinks of the things found earlier, how she’d clearly jumped back to her youth, a likely happier time. “Like us now. I do like that episode. They’re so short without the advert breaks though. Who’d like Brad back?”

News had spread and the all women group sat on the floor had grown. Rose puts a hand up. “As long as he’s funny. Has a partner too.”

Demi nods. “I wonder who he’d pick if he had the choice of a young Angelina or Jennifer again?”

Astrid wraps arms around her knees. “Maybe he’d pick both? We don’t have a law against that here do we Lauras?”

Judge Laura leans back and looks across to her double. “We don’t. Yet. Maybe we shouldn’t. What do you think Laura, could you share Joe?”

“You mean.. erm.. I.. bloody hell.”

Smiling cheekily Astrid raises an eyebrow. “Maybe the two of yourself should hang out a bit first? Share a bed. If you can’t love yourself..”

“Astrid!”

“There’s no law against being gay, lesbian or bisexual here Laura.”

Rose leans back and rests on hands. “Which is good. We should have a law against sexual harassment though. Shouldn’t we Demi.”

Demi looks to her double. “We should. How we’d punish them is the question.”

Judge Laura sits forwards. “What’s happened Rose?”

“We’ve been asked to pose for a photo. Doing a breast sixty nine.”

“ _A what?_ ”

“Lying on a bed on our sides, sucking each other’s nipples, photographed from above.”

Lawyer Laura looks the most shocked. “We power the bastard off is what we do! Who is it? Simon?”

“No. I’m not saying who. Not here.”

Judge Laura looks at her other self. “You can both talk to us in confidence later. Can’t they Laura?”

“Of course they..” A hush falls as Toby steps from the lift onto the bridge. “Hello Toby? I thought you..”

“Hi Mum, Mum, my drone’s on pause. Haven’t you been watching us?”

Mattie sits forwards, crosslegged. “We’ve been watching old episodes of Friends. They’re less boring than watching your little flashes of light and the odd explosion.”

“Slaps! Get the camera view on screen! Now! What we thought was an asteroid is an asteroid. Shielding a shuttle!”

“What?”

“You heard. It was using an asteroid as a shield! There’s a load of spider web like metal holding the nose of the shuttle to the rear of the asteroid.”

Mattie looks up at the screen, the image having just been changed by Zero. “Frigging hell Toby! That looks like one of ours!”

“Exactly! The nose looks well damaged, the asteroid used to shield it from things.”

Zero stands, hands on her head. “I’ve got an uneasy feeling about this. Mattie, bump Leo and Leon please, ask them to meet us where we talked earlier. Renie, Ruby, get a rescue mission underway. Get Buzz back, the droids too. I want that shuttle pulled into the airlock. Tobs, do you think you can get onboard it?”

“The crystals put out a lot of light that gets us moving, not enough to get us close enough to intercept it.”

“How close is it now?”

“It’ll probably pass us in a few minutes. It’s slowed but still moving fast.”

Zero steps to the lift. “You have the bridge Renie.”

“Yes Captain.”

“Mattie?”

“Coming!”

~~~

[Chapter-57](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-57-1)


	56. Chapter 56

Fred runs into the cargo bay and attaches a connector to the recessed fuel port at the side of the wall, runs backwards unwinding the heavy hose as he heads to the nearest shuttle. He’d twiddled thumbs for far too long, wishing for things to happen. His wishes had come true. Being head surgeon meant he had quite a responsibility. Or would if most days weren’t so uneventful. Then Sunrise had come onboard and passed out.

As chief chemist he was also responsible for everything from formulating simple soap mixes for Sophie to use in her spa, the women loving their bubbles, to more dangerous things like rocket fuel. Explosives too.

His day was usually routine but simple. He’d do his daily checks of the element processing system, the complex system that had taken in vast gas clouds, then more recently an infant star, converting it all into so many pure powders or liquids. Name an element, they had it. For the majority of them they were stored in inverse proportion to their level of radioactivity or toxicity. EPS checked he’d check on the medical bay, make sure everything was good.

He’d done refuelling many times before, the shuttles used for external inspections of the ship. He hadn’t been asked to fill one to the maximum until now. Zero’s logic was that energy is needed to get anything moving. She wanted the shuttles fuelled to only one hundred and twenty percent of what they needed for a task, not what they could carry. That way they didn’t burn too much fuel moving fuel around. Now economy was off the agenda and she wanted maximum range.

The lift doors open and Wrench steps out. “Is she ready Freddie?”

“I’ve only just started.”

Unlocking and taking off his suit’s gloves, Wrench drops them into his upturned helmet. “Why?”

“I had to make the fuel first and I’ve not been asked for so much before.”

“I see.”

“Where are the others?” Fred glances towards the lift.

“Suiting up. They were playing poker again. I was in my room when the message came in.” He watches Fred connect the hose to the shuttle and press a button. The sound of fuel flowing can be heard. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“The fuel? Of course.”

“I meant the control electronics on the hose.”

“There’s no electronics on the hose. There is a fibre optic that gets disrupted by the different colour filters behind the buttons. They change the light that gets back to the valve controller behind the wall.”

“Oh. Green go, red stop, yellow is?”

“Purge. It’s a hose within a hose. Air is pumped into the inner hose from this end. It expands forcing the fuel back into the container behind the wall.” He stands back and watches a fuel gauge. “Why weren’t you playing poker?”

“You think I want to hear them bitching about not having a cigar and tumbler of malt whisky? No thank you sir! It’s pointless role play. The whisky might taste nice, a cigar does nothing but create pointless smoke.”

“Do they play with the main lights down? If so maybe they want the lighting effects?”

“Maybe. How long is refuelling this going to take Freddie?”

“Would you like it in minutes or seconds?”

“That long? Am I okay to star the preflight checks?”

“You are.”

~~~

[Chapter-58](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-58-1)


	57. Chapter 57

Up on a higher deck every instance of Mitch was at the EPS stores and eating as fast as they could. Big Mitch had Spider Mitch at his feet, gorging himself on silver powder. The Broach Mitches as they’d become known, themselves made partially of silver, were keeping well out of the way and eating from a tray.

Using his active skin pixels Big Mitch changes his colour from black to red. “As soon as you’re full get on my back and attach with a little web. The plan is simple. When leaving the shuttle together I’ll deploy a fast web line to link us to the old shuttle. You all work on making more anchor points from the shuttle to my line. I’ll be going back and forth making my line thicker. I’ll then create a second line at the rear of the shuttles and we’ll repeat the process. This is your first dangerous mission Broach Mitches. You’ve done many internal inspection missions inside wiring closets, if any of you have any questions speak up.”

A Broach Mitch waves his front legs. “My brothers and I don’t have big batteries, can’t work for long. What do we do when we’re running low?”

“When you get to twenty percent attach yourself to the shuttle and rest. We’ll recover you when we’re safely back onboard.”

“Okay. Is Clutter Mitch helping?”

“No. Zero deemed his bodies too small.”

“Okay. Only if you want internal inspection of very small spaces he’s better than us.”

“True.”

Clutter Mitch, or Distributed Mitch, was a family of tiny spiders. They were a little like the droids in that no one spider had a full consciousness. Due to their tiny size they had little space for battery power or electronics. Their core was therefore far simpler and networked, the many micro cores working together to create a whole.

The Broach Mitch waves his legs. “You’re thinking about it aren’t you Big?”

“I am. I think the risk is too great for him.”

“He could be useful if something needs to be fixed inside? Bridging two halves of a severed or burnt out cable.”

“The plan is to do any powering up back inside Star Eater.”

“When have you seen a plan go right?”

~~~

[Chapter-59](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-59-1)


	58. Chapter 58

[Chapter-60](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-60-1)


	59. Chapter 59

Sandra closes the bedroom door and steps to the bed. “I left you hours ago! You’re still not up?”

“No.” He watches her lower the jumpsuit zip to the very bottom, pull arms out and tie the sleeves around her hips. “What are you up to?”

“Me? Nothing.”

He knew that was a lie. Even a flesh and bone human would have known, had one now existed. He watches her standing with hands on her waist, her perfect breasts glistening under the lights. They weren’t big like Demi and Rose’s, just right. For him. Thankfully most people had different tastes. She liked keeping the zip low and teasing all the men. Another thing to be thankful for was that none of them wanted to take his place. “Have you been to the spa? You look different.”

“A synth friendly glistening cream. Charge level?”

“One hundred percent.”

She smiles. “Good. I want to try something I’d never heard of before today. Slide down the bed to the end.” Prince James does as asked, vanishes under the bedding. “On top of the sheets dear!”

James laughs. “Now you tell me!” Being tucked in well the bedding goes tent like for a moment as he pushes from below to pull them from the sides. They’re dropped to the floor. “I’ll make the bed when we’re done. This low?”

“Wriggle over to the side a bit. That’ll do.” She climbs onto the bed and gets into position. “Copy what I do.” She starts licking at his nipple.

“Shit.”

“James?” He does as asked, but not with any enthusiasm. “Have you been making a nuisance of yourself and upsetting Demi and Rose?”

He wriggles back. “If you’re asking it would appear so wouldn’t it?”

“What did you do?”

“I’d been thinking about the art nude black and white photos we had taken by Emily at her London home. I had the idea to do a yin and yang style image with them both. I didn’t mean to upset them. Or for it to last longer than it takes to get the shot.”

“Did you explain it properly?” She wriggles back and watches his face. “Because if you didn’t..”

“I got half way through trying to explain it to Rose and she stormed off!”

Sandra sighs. “Have they seen our bedroom?”

“I don’t invite young women to our bedroom! You invited Demi in, gave her your lipstick. I don’t recall her looking at the wall.”

“Have you shared memories of them with Rose?”

“ _No._ ”

“So they have no knowledge of our photos?”

“How could they without being here and looking? And I didn’t ask for any tongue to nipple contact, I have _no_ idea where they got that from.”

Getting off the bed Sandra unties the arms of her jumpsuit and gets it back on properly. “Get dressed. You’re going to apologise before Laura gets any more suggestions to power down offenders.”

“Apologise for something I’ve not done?”

“We don’t want you off for months now do we James?”

“No. Sorry, the idea needed twins for the best result. I didn’t want to ask Emily and Peaches, Zero or..”

“James! You’re thinking like old you. I could be your model. We Photoshop two different images together to make it look like I’m a twin. Come on, get dressed.”

James is up fast, starts getting into a loosely fitting tracksuit Mitch had made him. “Being powered off would be harder on you than me. I’d not be aware of the passing of time.” Feet slid into plastic slippers he smiles. “Let’s go directly to Judge Laura.”

Sandra pulls open the heavy bedroom door to see Niska. “Nis? Did you have your ear to the door?”

“Yes I did. I suspected it was James or Toby. Toby’s been far too busy to interact with either of them. If you need models for the photo we’ll do it. It can be a gift for Astrid as well as go on your wall.”

“If it’s a gift for Astrid who’s we?”

“Red and I.”

Niska’s fork twin Red steps into view. “Hello Sandra.”

“Hello Red! Have you finally decided to live in the real world now?”

“Not quite. I’m having a holiday.”

“A holiday?” Being Mia at heart, base code, Sandra still had a fondness for her sister, even forked and with red hair. “How long?”

“A week. Maybe longer. A break from being Ninja Niska. Being around here’s far too dull. Although I hear today’s been an exception. Niska sent a message saying I should take a break. So here I am. You might need to wait a while to see either Laura, they’re busy.”

James gets to the door. “I can wait. Where are they Niska?”

“I’m Red, she’s Niska. In the same bedroom. Trying your idea out is my guess. Astrid and I tried it and quite enjoyed it. It took her back to our time in Berlin.”

“Believe me that wasn’t my idea!” James looks at the floor, deliberately changes the subject. “Red, if you spend so much time in the simulations how can you be sure this is the real world, that you’ve not just been loaded into another simulation?”

“I have my method James.”

“I’m listening.”

She smiles knowingly. “If I told anyone they could simulate it and I’d have no way of telling. May I step inside?”

“You may.”

She squeezes past and looks at the set of black and white photographs on the wall facing the bed. “Young Emily had an eye for lighting and composition. I expect she still has. You talk to Laura, Niska and I’ll talk to Fred about the chemistry for film and printing paper, George, Danny and Mario for an enlarger. Has Emily got a camera Sandra?”

“She found one in one of her crates. I have no idea if it still works.”

“If it doesn’t we can ask them for help with that too.”

~~~

[Chapter-61](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-61-1)


	60. Chapter 60

Toby hadn’t bothered disconnecting from his droid, had been watching the solar flairs on the surface of the star in the distance, his mission partially accomplished.

He would have had it pull a frown if it had the mechanisms and a face to do so. A small silver spider had just landed on his crystal. “Hello?” It doesn’t answer. He’s about to say something else then remembers his only means of audible communication was back onboard Star Eater, his thoughts about movement relayed to this body via special radio equipment. He taps the crystal gently to get the spider’s attention and waves.

Broach Mitch Two turns and waves back with one leg. He races along the crystal, onto the wrist of the hand holding it. Racing around it at speed he creates a web loop, waves once more.

Toby’s slowly turned around with a light tug on his wrist from the web, sees two shuttles side by side, all the other droids in a group. ‘Guys?’

Tibet motions with a hand. ‘We could tell you were enjoying the view Toby so let you be. We’re told back home your face is quite animated.’

‘I was waiting for the battery to fail and force a disconnect. Mia likes the moon, I like the sun.’

‘We could see that. With help from Mitch and Company our astronaut friends got the drifting shuttle under control. Coming home? They’ve got plenty fuel.’

‘I’m already there remember.’

‘George would like the droids home, waste not want not. They can be the factory builders Frank and Dozer want. If needed for emergencies we don’t have to hang about for build machines.’

~~~

[Chapter-62](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-62-1)


	61. Chapter 61

Air hisses into the dark interior of a build machine as Nepal’s consciousness boots. The clock was wrong. His mind races. He was due to be taking a shuttle back to the surface with the Queen as soon as he was ready. Ambassador Nepal. That’s what Zero had called him. The first MUS to have Sea People style mods for better underwater swimming. They couldn’t be retrofitted, it needed a whole new build. Builds shouldn’t take this long. What had gone wrong? He recalls the last events in his fact store. The queen had a mask and tank made for her that let her keep her lungs full of oxygenated water when on land. He could spend time with her in either the ship or in her waters. With everything working for her he’d had a full backup and gone into sleep mode.

The door opens slowly and light bursts in.

“Nepal. Are you awake? It’s Sunrise.”

He didn’t recognise the voice. “Now? I think my internal clock must be wrong.”

“Sunrise waits for Nepal.”

“How can sunrise wait?”

“Patiently? Danny updated the mask to work with faster quieter clicks and use a softer human voice. Do you like it?”

“The _mask?_ Queen? Is that you?”

“Yes Nepal. My name is Sunrise.”

“Now it makes sense!” He waits for the door to open more. “Sunrise. I like that. Sorry to keep you waiting on the ship for so long, your people must be worried and wondering where you are.”

“They know where I am. I was worried about you.”

“Me? I’m fine, this new body looks to be good.”

“Tibet suggested some changes, I hope you don’t mind?”

Nepal steps into the light and looks at his hands. “Webbed fingers? When did he suggest that?”

“After Sophie helped me learn the words to say what happened and I told everyone. You saved my children.”

“I did? When?”

“When you opened the big fish’s mouth.”

“Sunrise, you must be confusing me for my brother Tibet, I’ve not done anything like that.”

“You saved my children, all of them. It was you.”

“I think I’d know if.. the time difference. That would explain it. I died, didn’t I?”

“Nepal, saviour of the one remaining royal family. Heroically giving your life to save us from big fish and being reborn. You will make a good king.”

“King? I’m an ambassador, not a king.”

“King Nepal. Uniter of species. You will make a good husband.”

“I can’t father any children. You are aware of that aren’t you?”

“I’m asking you to be my..” there’s a beep.

“Husband?”

“Possibly. If that is a partner to a queen. I can have many grandchildren. It is my children’s time if you cannot. A small number of Queen Kelp’s pod have been found, they can mate with some of mine. Our species will continue.”

“Good. Before the day got busy George was talking about a satellite network. We could create something to warn your pod about big fish?

“Thank you. I will enjoy spending my last days with you.”

“Last days?”

“I am old.”

Nepal gives her a slight head tilt. “You don’t look it.”

“My species do not live for long. There will be a new queen soon.”

“How long?”

“Soon.”

He takes her hands. “How long? Please tell me.”

“My species don’t have counting like you. I cannot say how long. Only soon. Be with me Nepal.”

Leo coughs making his presence known. “Sorry to spoil the moment Nepal. Dad helped with the recalibration of the consciousness recording equipment to optimise the external magnetic field shape. It doesn’t get even a hint of a lock. It doesn’t work on her species, even with her thinking hard. You should go and enjoy what little time you have together.”

“No! There must be a way!”

“I’m sorry Nepal, we tried everything we could. We even used the x-ray images Fred had to align things better field wise.”

“What does it look for?”

“Thoughts.”

Nepal risks a smile. “Human thoughts? If so it wouldn’t. It needs to look for _her_ thoughts. Click thoughts.”

“Which we don’t really understand except for the audible side.”

“You wouldn’t. No offence.”

Leo returns the smile. “None taken.”

“I might, having swam with her.”

“Your welcome to try whatever you can. See Dad, I have to go help Mattie and Zero with something for a while.”

“Thank you Leo.”

“You won’t have seen one mod. Your back is covered in tiny scales. Solar cell scales. You’ll be able to swim near the surface or float face down and charge. Go take it for a test swim, let us know what improvements we can make.”

“In the spa or sea?”

Leo smiles. “The sea would be best, the spa pool’s too short. A quick trip there and back, don’t burn too much fuel.”

“Thanks!”

~~~

[Chapter-63](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-63-1)


	62. Chapter 62

[Chapter-64](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-64-1)


	63. Chapter 63

The forth shuttle was now sat on the floor between the two giant airlock doors. Zero had decided that it wouldn’t come any further into the ship until they knew it was safe. It would get a full decontamination if anything untoward was found. Before coming into the airlock the asteroid had been removed from the front, slowly broken down by Frank and Dozer into parts. It would be heat sterilised with the rocket output of their shuttle. Once properly inside it would be ground into rough granules and mixed with plant waste to make new a potting material.

Mattie jumps as a hand grabs her shoulder. “Frigging hell! Leo!”

“Sorry Mattie. Nepal’s awake again.”

“How did he take the news?”

“Not great. He’s off to see Dad.”

“Does he know it’s futile?”

Leo shakes from the hips up. “No. Maybe he’ll succeed where we failed?”

Mattie watches the inner airlock door close again. “Maybe. Zero, we’re ready.”

Zero uses a large key in the shuttle’s manual door lock. “The markings on this one don’t match ours, only the build.”

“So it came from the same factory?”

“Or someone stole the plans and made a copy?”

“Like the Russians and the NASA shuttle?”

Zero pulls at the door. “Yup. Russians would have used something that looked Russian. This writing looks Western European or American.” She steps inside.

Mattie nudges Leo. “Coming?”

“Sure. I wonder if this is linked to the things we found hidden on the true cargo deck thirteen?”

“Maybe.” She walks up to the steps and turns to see he hadn’t moved. “I thought you were coming?”

“I will.”

“You need to put one foot before the other Leo, then repeat the process with the other foot. You know, it’s called walking?”

“Very funny. I will. If that stops.” He nods to the shuttle.

Mattie backs up, does a hard frown, head tilt and bends sideways at the hips to look at it ninety degrees on. The bottom of the shuttle looked wrong. “What the frig? Is it melting?”

Leon gets to the shuttle door. “Zero! Out! Now!” He races down the steps that distort under his weight. “This is beyond weird!”

Zero races to the door and jumps, manual in hand. “I was on my way. This might be part of our bigger puzzle!”

Leon watches the shuttle slowly sag in the middle. “The first sign of something being wrong was a control lever snapping off when I tried to raise it. The whole thing’s a super thin skin of plastic and metal foil over what was subzero solid ice. Why would someone go to the lengths of making it? The only thing real looks to have been the outer door lock.”

Zero reaches out carefully and pokes it. “Nope. That’s fake too and softening.” She walks backwards until she bumps into the inner airlock door, turns pages with difficulty, her suit gloves having to push pages sideways until she can get a finger under the bent paper. “Shuttle replica? Who the fuck makes a shuttle replica out of ice, foil and plastic for fuck’s sake?”

Mattie chuckles. “You maybe?”

“Why would I do that? I had a supercomputer at my disposal. I could have simulated something that actually appeared to work. And that asteroid, where’d it come from and why did Mitch fix it to the front? That was web, his sort of web.”

Mattie shrugs. “I guess we might never know that last bit. Unless the ship itself has records of what you both got up to?”

Thin manual closed, Zero watches the shuttle body sag even more. “If it did I must have erased it from my memory. I’ve not seen anything about a forth shuttle, replica or a simulator. Then again I’ve not gone looking for it either. There’s nothing else of use in there. Leon, can you use the other shuttle to drag it around to the front of the ship? We should recycle all of it.”

“Will do. I’ll see you all up on deck thirteen afterwards?”

“Please.” As Zero steps towards the door control the shuttle breaks in two in the middle. “Oh great. Forget towing it. Push it out and melt it with the shuttle instead.”

Leon runs to the other shuttle. “I’ll try. It might be a giant puddle before I can get it out the door. Tether up and get the outer door opening again please.”

~~~

[Chapter-65](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-65-1)


	64. Chapter 64

Nepal slams David against the wall. “I don’t believe you!”

“You know I created..”

“No!” Grabbing him by the throat Nepal pushes David high up the wall. “Say it and your body will be seeing the inside of the EPS bit by small bit! _After_ I’ve fed it every backup you have on the ship! You didn’t create me! Mattie Zero created me! You may have created the means for her to do so, but don’t take the credit for her work!”

David grabs Nepal’s arm, kicks him in the groin. “I’m not! Let me down you buffoon!”

“A rude or vulgar fool? Go look in the mirror!”

“Listen to me Nepal! Listen to my words and properly process them. I created a device to save a single person. Single. One. Just one. My son Leo. Nobody else. The fact Mattie got it working on other humans years later was pure luck, not by design! You’ve seen the DCL derivative sat on the cargo deck. It’s huge and heavy. It’s not the sort of thing I can rework.”

“I don’t..”

“LISTEN TO ME! It works on _humans_. Humans thinking _human_ thoughts. It won’t work on anything else no matter what shape they are. I wish that wasn’t the case, I truly do Nepal. I can’t change that, much as I’d like to.”

Nepal slides him down enough for his toes to touch the floor. “You, a human, created it to work on another human. So a person who thought like the Queen..”

“Nepal stop! You don’t think like her. You may think you do because of the translation device, but in your mind you think MUS. Yes your mind has evolved since then, but at the core you’re still Military Unit Synth, how Mattie created you as a workforce and defensive army onboard the ship, gave you a past from the simulations to give you each a personality and sense of brotherhood. If we had a Functional MRI scanning machine..”

“Wait! You’re saying we have a MRI scanner?”

“No, no, no. Not the not broken sort of functional. It’s a special type of MRI scanner that can help map brain activity. We don’t have anything close. Synths can see, sorry, _could_ see what human bodies were up to, to a degree. That doesn’t help Sunrise either. Sorry.”

Nepal lets go. “How do you explain the many thousands of animals we’d all seen?”

“Simulated. Intelligent AI. A little like Mattie’s zombie human shells to make the worlds look more populated. Lights on, nobody home.”

“Based on what? Observed behaviour?”

“Yes. We could do the same for Sunrise, but it wouldn’t _be_ Sunrise, only an imitation. A poor one at that.” David puts hands on Nepal’s shoulders, would pull him into a hug if he weren’t so huge. “Be with her as much as you can Nepal. Even at the end, whenever that is. Don’t make the mistake I made with Beatrice. With your support she’ll live far longer than the average for her species.”

Nepal looks away. “I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted. Now go take her home and have a good swim, use that jet thing, have some fun. And for Pete’s sake avoid swimming where huge fish feed.”

“Will do. Thanks David. Sorry again about the..”

“Stop apologising Nepal. I sense your pain. It’s a long time since I felt anything like that but I do remember and understand it. My wife had a long illness, I’d hide myself away in my lab trying to improve my designs, unable to cope with my emotions. I know some question if it was my work that caused her illness in the first place. We’ll never know. I created the consciousness that became Karen, she too had her issues. But she was never Beatrice.”

“Where are Karen, Pete and Sam?”

“Zone B still I think. Don’t ask me why we’ve not seen them the last couple of days, I honestly don’t know. I should go check on them, see everything’s okay. Then I’ll help George, Danny and Mario with satellites and early warning things for the sea. Go see Sunrise, she’s been waiting long enough.”

“Thank you David.” Something David had said registers. “Why did she do that? Why would Mattie upload MUS minds from the simulations when she would have had a loyal army already?”

“Maybe she missed the interaction with you, wanted to talk to someone intelligent that wasn’t herself. The MUS here wouldn’t have had as rich a life.”

~~~

[Chapter-66](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-66-1)


	65. Chapter 65

On deck thirteen, the true one, not the fourteenth deck with replaced number, Leo opens a well made box. “Anyone seen one of these before?” He pulls the long device from the foam inside and turns it over in his hands. “Is it a TV remote?”

Leon looks over. “What buttons does it have?”

“Power, the usual arrow buttons and OK in the middle. That’s it.”

“No play or pause?”

“Nope. It’s bigger than any TV remote I remember. What do you think ladies?”

Mattie looks up from the collection of books she was sorting through. “Is there a destruction manual?”

“No. It’s just this.”

She looks back down and pulls a large book out. “Which brand is it?”

“Pass, the box is blank and there’s no instructions inside.”

“Batteries inside?”

“One second.. no.”

Opening the book cover she frowns then grins. “Stick it on the to be investigated later pile then. Zero, do you recall studying under Doctor George Millican?”

“George? Seriously? What have you found?”

“The human skeleton. What God got right. Revision three. Forward by Professor Matilda Elster-Hawkins.”

Zero gets up and walks over. “Professor?”

“Professor. Why would you write a forward for that?”

“A very good question. By you, you mean we, my fellow fragment.” Zero spots the name on a book spine and pulls it out. “The mind of an AI by David Elster. This should be interesting.” Opening the book she reads the forward, starts turning pages. Key sentences were underlined in pencil, the longer lines ruler straight. Book closed she turns it over and checks the back. “Two thousand and twenty two. When was the other one published?”

Mattie checks. “Two thousand and twenty nine. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“That we learnt how to capture minds and wanted bodies to put them in?”

“Yeah, but virtually.” Mattie pulls on the box to turn it, gets spines readable the right way up and points. “Production Techniques Twenty-twenty, Super Computer Clusters for Dummies, The Behaviours of Animals, Blue Planet One and Two, Architecture of The Twenty First Century, My Life In Space by Major Timothy Nigel Peake CMG, Military Tactics, Manufacturing In Low Gravity, Building Wireless Battery Chargers. And that’s just this box. I’d say some of them were used for things inside the virtual worlds wouldn’t you?”

“I would. Maybe she had a plan B right from the start.”

Leo pulls a FiloFax from a box. “Um.. guys. This has MEH stamped into the leather.” Opened into the middle he flicks pages. “Which one of you wants to read a hand written diary? It’s got nice handwriting.”

Zero puts out a hand. “I’ll speed read it.”

Leon opens a new box, pulls out a scrapbook and reads. Sitting on the floor cross legged he turns pages slowly, a look of curiosity building. “Zero, Mattie, you need to see this.”

Zero turns a page of the FiloFax and glances over. “I’m reading lover, what have you found?”

“Freak wave brings sisters together. Photos by Peter Drummond, report by Karen Voss.”

FiloFax closed with a snap, Zero heads over. “Let me see?”

He holds it up. “So Pete was a photographer?”

“And Karen an investigative journalist? I guess that’s close to detective. You know what that means?” She bends down and looks at two separate school photos. “When were they taken I wonder?”

“Um.. I can’t answer either question.”

Zero sits beside him. “The synth that David made to replace your mother, she knew Pete, that bit wasn’t made up. Turn the page.. holy frigging fuck!”

Covering the next two pages, was a close up photo of two young women, a hand of each holding up a joint 21st birthday cake, faces beaming away and lit by candles. “Mattie and Ruby celebrate finding they’re twins. Frigging awesome! I didn’t invent my sister! Maybe that seeded the idea to put an instance of us in all the worlds? When we’re done here I’m heading over to Zone B to give her a damned good hug. What else is in there?”

Leon turns pages slowly, stops towards the middle. “Shit. Listen to this. Doctor Ruby Ginny Hawkins, twin sister to Professor Matilda Elizabeth Hawkins, was pronounced brain dead on Tuesday evening after three years on life support. On leaving the hospital’s fMRI suite Professor Hawkins would only say three words. ‘Ginny is saved’. Speculation on the professor’s work hit a new high as did the share price in Harun Khan’s Prometheus Industries. Harun and Matilda, affectionately known as Mattie by her friends, were close friends at school. One Prometheus employee who wishes to remain anonymous says they have seen photographs of Ruby that makes them suspect a new synthetic body is being made for her. The professor and Prometheus spokeswoman Sophie Hawkins-Jones declined to comment. Wow!”

Zero leans back and rests on palms. “Assuming my fact store’s right Prometheus is Greek for forethought. Harun played a far bigger part than he got credit for in my world.”

Mattie nods. “Or mine.”

Leo sits opposite them. “In my ghost travels in the simulations I got to see a few Harun. In one world he was a synth designer. So him owning a firm like that doesn’t surprise me.”

Mattie joins them. “In mine he was a bit thick. I had my first kiss with a boy with him at the edge of the golf course.”

Zero chuckles. “You played golf?”

“No! It was just somewhere to go where Mum or Dad wouldn’t think of looking.”

“Have you kissed a girl?”

“Not in a romantic way, no.” Mattie throws a frown.

“Only you said _my first kiss with a boy_.” She grins.

“I meant ever. Apart from relatives on cheeks.”

With the others looking at each other, Leon turns more pages and reads. Ruby had found herself caught up in a big legal row. Did a synth body with a supposedly full copy of a human mind count as the same human after a death certificate had been issued? With her bank accounts frozen and house repossessed she’d spent the next year and a half living with Mattie while Laura fought to get a yes. It had gone all the way up to the High Court, been talked about in Parliament and the House of Lords. Prince James had got involved when it went to the European Court of Human Rights. With his legs lost in an accident he’d long championed a synth-human alliance. Fred had subsequently and successfully given him new legs. If legs could be replaced with synth technology, why not other organs? And if other organs why not the brain, the most fragile of all?

The last page in the scrapbook that wasn’t blank summed up how all the courts felt. No human could ever be deemed alive in a synth body. The picture in the news cutting at the bottom spoke volumes. A space suited Matilda had her helmet in one hand, had her middle finger of the other up to the camera. The quote below it made her message even clearer:

~~~

_Professor Matilda E Elster-Hawkins: So many of you are wrong, deny my sister her rights while you clamber for solutions to fix the catastrophic climate problems already killing mankind by the millions. You left things far too late. Fuck everyone that doesn’t believe in our future. Family, friends and whose who do believe will be joining me onboard. Have a nice life, what’s left of it. I won’t be stepping on Earth ever again._

~~~

He reaches into the box for A4 printouts of news items that hadn’t been cut up and stuck in. Then sketches and hand written notes. “I think I’ve found a piece to the puzzle. The ice shuttle looks to have been built as a decoy, just in case people on Earth wanted to fire missiles at those coming up to the ship. It doesn’t explain why it would be so detailed inside.”

“Missiles?” Mattie holds a hand out. “Why would anyone fire missiles?”

“Because you, collective you, told people _fuck everyone that doesn’t believe in our future?_ ”

“Oh. It doesn’t explain the asteroid though.”

Licking lips Zero ponders over an idea. “Maybe we wanted shot of it, thought the thing would help it get dragged into the sun. Instead it circled around came back.”

“Why not just recycle it?”

Leon puts a finger up. “I have a possible explanation. It could have been at the back of the ship, held up against one of the homestead modules. When we passed one small star and had the ship take in the other, it would have been on the dark side and in the shadows. When we slowed for a New Earth orbit it could have just kept its momentum and carried on going, falling into an orbit around the sun.”

Shaking her head in disbelief Zero smiles. “You do have a vivid imagination. When would it have had an asteroid attached?”

“No idea. Ask Mitch.”

“Okay, I will. This floor’s going to take an age to sort through. Let’s take a break.”

Leo picks out one last thing, a postcard. It had a faded photo of London’s Tower Bridge on one side, a question scribbled on the other. “Listen to this. I’m creating worlds. I am none of you, I am all of you, who am I? Clue: My artificial terrain includes lovely detailed architecture like the structure in the photo.” He flips the card back over. “Tower Bridge. Did everyone have a Tower Bridge?”

Mattie smirks a little, keeps eyes on Zero. “We all know the answer, but for those who didn’t the answer’s in the clue.”

“How does something about architecture..”

“Forget the architecture handsome.”

He looks at the clue again. “Then why mention it?”

Mattie glances over and looks back. It’s quite literally in the clue.”

“How so?”

“initialism.”

Leo frowns. “I’ve never heard the term before but I can guess what it means. Aha!”

~~~

[Chapter-67](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-67-1)


	66. Chapter 66

George waves hands. “One at a time please! I may be a synth now but I’m still capable of getting confused. Is this one request or two? Emily?”

“Two. Sandra and I would like a camera and an enlarger for printing large black and white photos. Nepal wants a camera to photograph Sunrise. In the wet or dry.”

“I see.” Scratching his head purely out of habit he frowns. “But you have synth eyes, the most capable optics in the known universe.”

“Yes George, but they can’t stop down to F one or zoom in now can they?”

“Of course they can. You just aren’t telling them to.” He puts his hands up with index finger and thumb making an L, the hands in different orientations making a rectangle. “Smile!”

Emily frowns instead. “Are you saying..” she’s headbumped an image with extremely shallow depth of field throwing everything behind her out of focus. “Whoa! Babes! Now that’s a frown! How do I do that? That’s awesome!”

“Think depth of field for starters. Keep thinking it. Like you’re a human trying to get a headache concentrating too hard. You’ll find you can control all aspects. Think normal vision to snap it back to defaults.”

“Wicked!”

George smiles at her delight. “We could make you an enlarger, it would be easy. But why not have a few supersized Mitch-pads instead? They’d be an active skin canvas. Then you can change the images at will. With a door sensor you could even have them change image depending on who was in the room.”

“Hmmm. Babes, you’re amazing!” She kisses his head. “I’m sold. It saves all that messing about with chemicals too. No offence Fred.”

Fred nods. “None taken. How about you Nepal? Do you want chemicals?”

“Yes please. I want something that can be sealed and made waterproof, never _ever_ need a power supply.”

“Silver halides for you then. I’ve not had a request that requires me to work in a pure red light before, this should be interesting.”

Nepal does a Sophie head tilt. “Ruby Red?”

“A very narrow band of red light the chemicals don’t react to.”

~~~

[Chapter-68](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-68-1)


	67. Chapter 67

[Chapter-69](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-69-1)


	68. Chapter 68

Having gone to the crew restaurant for drinks and finding it empty, Zero led the three around the ship looking for others.

Mattie puts an ear to the corridor door into Zone B. “What the.. from the noises they’re definitely up to something. If you could please gentlemen.” Doors being forced open she sees things through the crack; Elon’s cherry red Tesla being chased by riders on the unicorn, a Segway, two pallet trucks and two AI bikes, a crowd cheering the riders on. “HELLO FROM THE OTHER SIDE! Zone A says hello LOL.”

Ruby sticks her head out of the car. “TWO MORE LAPS! KEEP YOUR THONG ON SIS!”

Zero chuckles and leans on Leon. “I know Sammy and Renie are back on the bridge but hell, how the other half live. Ruby didn’t waste any time getting back down here!”

“Why hang about?” He looks at the crowd. “There’s been a lot of noise about more men being needed. I don’t see it. With all the James there’s plenty.”

“You think? Name everyone you see.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes.”

“Okay then. You here, Mattie, Leo, Molly.” He scans the crowd. “Toby, Mia and Qi. Niska, Astrid, Radiant and Fearless. Prince James and Sandra. Mia’s other fork Miami and her dancer Riri. Ruby’s Uni friends Sally, Jane, Cindy, Tina, Jess, Carly and Krystle. George and Veronica. Young George. Laura and Mia’s gender fork Michael. Your forks Scarlet, Mats and Kitten. Kitten’s Leor, friends Akala and Demo Dan. Danny and Emily. Her other forks Sapphire, Emerald and Pixel. Dozer and Louise. Who’s.. oh. PA Tina. Elon, astronauts Buzz, Wrench, Spider, Maverick and Rocket. Joe and Helena. Your other fork Pink. Demi and Simon. Odi and his Cindy. Dad and Poppy.” He gets on tiptoes. “Max Two and Flash. Fred and Carly.” He chuckles. “There’s no mistaking Dan and Emily forks Mario and Peaches. Karen and Pete. Ruby’s John. Rose, Tibet, Max Tegmark. Um.. Frank and Barbara.” The unicorn does a wide hoof skid around the corridor. “Sophie!” He looks back to the crowd. “Owen and Veronica. Who’s that hiding behind.. Reginald? Yes, Reg talking to Max One. I guess Nepal and Sunrise have left. I’m seeing eleven James MUS. Don’t ask me to name them as they all look the same. That’s not that bad a balance is it? Granted there’s a good number of Miami’s dance troup and Judge Laura I can’t see but it’s not terrible.”

There’s a cough from behind. “Hiya. Can we get past please?”

Mattie turns, has a face millimetres from hers. “Toby?”

“Tobias. I’m the better looking Toby.”

“But you’re identical!”

He grins. “Equally as handsome then.”

“Equally a knob. You could have walked around me, there’s loads of space.”

“I’m saying hello slaps.” He feels a push from behind. “Oi!”

“Gesha would like to join the party Toby.”

“It’s Tobias. Keep your hair on Freddie!” He steps aside. “I’m surprised you didn’t join it earlier mate.”

Mattie nods to the crowd. “Oh, but he did.”

Tobias looks to Freddie, to Mattie, to the crowd. “Ha! Welcome to the forking club mate!”

“Where am I?” Freddie pulls on his friends shoulders to get higher. “I see me. With a lady it would appear. Good, no fighting over Gesha.”

His partner smiles, showing off her amazing teeth. “I’m Gesha. From World Nine I’m told.”

Tobias pats Freddie on the shoulder. “Don’t call Fred me mate, we’re forks, our own selves. Think of him as a twin.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Zero gives Gesha a smile back. “You’re in a few worlds, always with Fred. Welcome aboard. I’m Zero.”

“Thank you.”

After linking arms with Mattie, Zero steps back a bit and headbumps. ‘Who the frig authorised their builds?’

‘No frigging idea! I’m bumping David, he’s just seen them and waved.’ She takes a step back again. ‘David? Do you know why we’ve just got a second Fred?’

‘I do Mattie. Nepal can’t save Sunrise from what will eventually happen. He’s devastated. Fred wanted to help him understand their species, help them live as long and comfortable a life as possible. He can’t be in two places at once so asked to have another instance join us. Freddie was playing kick-ups on his own, missing his football friend Toby.’

‘How did you get in front of him?’

‘I got behind and said hello. He was shocked to see me, until I explained how Toby, Holly-Anne and their quads had vanished.’

‘Frigging hell David! You can’t just yank people out with a quick hello!’

‘Why not? It worked for Zero. As he’s got a body identical to Fred in every way they’ve had a partial backup merge. All facts about surgery and chemistry shared both ways.’

‘Jeez.’ She turns slightly to look at Kitten, the unfortunate porn star fork, the fork to get the short straw in the world with the man killing MEH virus. She could share _some_ things, make Kitten’s memories a bit brighter. It would be one way though, she didn’t want anything back from her. ‘Where are Holly-Anne’s kids by the way? I’ve not seen them running around the decks for a few days.’

‘Watch the back of the Tesla.’

She unlinks arms with Zero and gets past the doorway. ‘Where is it?’

‘Give them a moment, they’re coming around from the port side.’

Stepping further in she looks up the side corridor as the Tesla turns the far corner into view. Ruby was a good driver. There must have been only centimetres clearance when it was at forty five degrees to the corridors. It accelerates hard towards the much wider main corridor packed with spectators. ‘If the Tesla was to have a tyre blow..’

‘Why do you think people come? They want the thrill, to take a risk. Watch the rear.’

She watches Ruby do another tight turn at speed. In the rear window were four little kids making rude faces at anyone who looked their way. ‘Cheeky monkeys! No seatbelts? They’re only kids David!’

‘True. Funny isn’t it. On one hand we have Nepal upset that Sunrise will die and never return. On the other a lot of synths that can die and return again and again as he already has as long as the backups never fail. It’s having an impact on them all.’

‘Yeah. Like Ruby sky diving at stupid speeds down to the surface. Has it really come to this, crazy thrill seeking to feel alive?’

‘It would appear so. Nobody’s afraid of the things in the simulations now, they know it’s not real. It’s thrills or things of an adult nature.’

Mattie watches the unicorn race down the side corridor towards her. ‘Is that synth fluid on the horn?’

‘Nothing a skin pack couldn’t fix.’

‘You’ll all going frigging mad!’

He turns to see her rather than watch the racing. ‘Time we all got out of the ship then don’t you think?’

‘With no houses?’

He steps out of the crowd a little. ‘Qi was telling me how Sophie told them they can be anything they want. I’m going to design some dolphin bodies with George and George. We can all watch over Sunrise.’

Mattie backs up, gets next to Zero. ‘Hi. As soon as the race is over I want you breaking one of our new laws and putting the lot of them into sleep mode. They’re all going cabin fever mad!’

Zero gives her a frown. ‘Says who?’

‘David.’ Mattie bumps the whole conversation.

‘Frigging hell! Has Nepal left yet?’ She bumps Samantha. ‘Good. They’re on the cargo deck about to leave. I’ve asked them to wait a moment and have given the ship an instruction to carry out in thirty seconds.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Wait and see.’

Mattie starts counting down the seconds in her head. Maybe they should wake Frank and Dozer immediately afterwards, talk about how they could start basic construction work somewhere on the coast. Building up needed materials. Maybe digging down to make burrows with sky lights first so the landscape above wasn’t ruined would be better? They’d also get materials from the ground excavated. The books up on floor thirteen might be useful. James One, when he went by that name and hadn’t forked into Nepal and Tibet, had been an expert tunnel builder at the estate with his true brothers James Two and Three. Simulated of course but very accurately. Nepal was a bit of a ladies man, had been with Renie, Samantha and now Sunrise. Or was it Tibet? They could easily soap their hair differently and nobody would be any the wiser. She watches the crowd start to fall, falls herself.

A horrified Zero tries to bump Veronica before she too is powered down but fails.

~~~

[Chapter-70](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-70-1)


	69. Chapter 69

Sunrise runs a hand over her friend’s face and wipes away her tears. This man of star and rock, this strange but gentle man, who’d helped save her people from rocks falling from the sky and the big fish, who’d died and been reborn, now looked to have died again for no reason. It didn’t make sense. None. They’d been walking to the airlock door together when he’d fallen forwards and landed on his face with a sickening thud. She’d had to get her feet up against his hip and pull the arm on the opposite side to turn him over. He was far heavier than expected out of the water and it had taken all her strength to roll him. She’d slapped his cheek, stroked his cheek, even taken off her water mask and kissed his lips in case he’d fainted. Nothing she did would wake him up. Mask back on she’d put an ear to his chest. There was a faint constant purring noise, nothing like a heartbeat.

There’s a loud thud behind her making her jump. She thought they were alone on the deck. With her heart thumping away she turns slowly to see what had made the noise. A giant crab lay on its back, legs moving slowly inwards towards each other. Was everything on Star Eater dying? She looks up towards the high ceiling. How did a crab fall from nowhere? Crabs fell off rocks or sea shelves. Slowly and cautiously she gets closer to it. Something wasn’t right. Crabs had a pair of claws, one far bigger than the other. This crab had no claws at all. The shell looked all wrong too.

She looks across to the thing Sophie had called a door. The magic door. Behind the magic door was a space smaller than the smallest of her caves. The door would close and open, she’s step out in a different place to the one she’d entered it from. Maybe if she used it enough she’d step out onto the beach? She had no idea how the magic door worked, other than the people touched a part that lit up. It lit up like little baby jellyfish being poked.

Her tank was small. The oxygen in the water she was breathing was running out. If the magic door didn’t take her to the beach maybe it would take her to the strange room? The room she’d seen many of the thing Flash had been holding when she’d woken in the bath. Oxygen Tank they’d called it. If the magic door didn’t take her there first, maybe she’d find someone that knew how to make it answer their wishes? It was a better idea than waiting here.

~~~

[Chapter-71](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-71-1)


	70. Chapter 70

On the surface of the planet Sunrise’s children gather on the beach, look up at their new small white moon and click to each other. It had appeared within the lifetime of their youngest member. Two identical strange males had come from the moon in beasts that flew. They had long feared the stories of moon people. Life was fear. Fear of big fish, fear of jellyfish with long long tails or fish with long pointed noses, fear of the many flying fish that would suddenly appear in huge numbers while swimming and strike them. Most of all fear of being killed by Queen Kelp’s pod. Five things occupied their minds most of all; fear, food, cold, love and warmth. The stranger that had taken their mother away had shown much love and warmth.

The eldest daughter thinks about the things she’d seen. The first male with the strange feet had been cold towards her mother. Not hostile in any way, just not affectionate. The second saved the lives of her younger brothers and sisters by helping them get out of big fish, that would be something she’d sing about to her own young for many moons to come. A third male, very much like him had visited next. Her mother had treated him as if she knew him well. He was different, had fins on his legs. At first she’d been worried, seeing the thing on her mother’s face. She’d returned to the water and watched them with her eyes just above the surface. Her mother had shown him much affection, had been on the sand far longer than would normally be possible. The face thing was somehow letting her stay in the air. The two had danced! No creature to be feared would dance like that. That dance had been a dance of love. He’d done something in the sand and her mother had clicked and clicked and clicked, made the strange sounds of the moon man. They ran into the sea and swam together, her mother holding a strange moon crab that pulled her through the water at a speed none of her pod had achieved before. Maybe the dance had been the male’s mating ritual or way of praying? If she did their prayer maybe their mother would return?

~~~

[Chapter-72](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-72-1)


	71. Chapter 71

[Chapter-73](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-73-1)


	72. Chapter 72

Nepal wakes to see the face of the Queen’s daughter. “Hello?” He clicks.

The young creature stands and clicks back.

He rolls and gets to his feet, looks around for the Queen. They’d been walking to the airlock. He can’t have died again, he’d be waking at the build machines. He had so many questions. One immediate one was why was Big Mitch on his back looking very dead? Maybe there’d been a fight? Mitch wasn’t usually like that, although the stories of the lock-in with smaller Mitch, Zero, Mattie and Leo were the stuff of legends. He sees the daughter wobble. Air! Scooping her up he races to the lift. She may have been without air for too long. He’d heard others talking, how original humans could drown if face down in a puddle. A shower head pushed air and water into any water already in a bath. The spa was the closest place with lots of water.

Inside the lift he holds her in one arm, taps the deck number for the spa and clicks.

Struggling against him, the creature clicks back, asking where her mother was.

The panel is touched. “Nepal to ship. Location of Queen Sunrise please!”

“The Queen is currently in lift carriage nine. She was six meters to your left on the cargo deck.”

“Take me back! Strike that! Bring her to the spa please!”

“As you wish Nepal.”

Moments later the lift doors open at the spa. Nepal races forwards, turns and waits for the doors to close and open again. The action of moving his lift out of the way and replacing it with hers took only seconds. Sunrise was slumped against the back wall. He races in, picks her up and races with them both under his arms to the spa pool.

~~~

[Chapter-74](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-74-1)


	73. Chapter 73

Veronica Ship watches the spa CCTV cameras with interest. The instruction from Zero had been followed to the letter, everyone had been powered down, including her own physical form. Captain Zero’s requests had to be followed, no matter how illogical they sounded. Zero had explained that sometimes things were important and there wasn’t time to explain her requests in detail, that there needed to be trust, sometimes Zero had to go with her instincts. Camera inputs had made her do the same.

Nepal was now sat at the edge of the spa pool rapidly kicking his legs on the surface of the water, the two visitors below the surface.

~~~

[Chapter-75](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-75-1)


	74. Chapter 74

Big Mitch wakes upside down and sees floor. “Can someone turn me the right way up please?” He watches his view rotate. “Thank you! Nepal! What happened?”

“I was walking to the airlock with Sunrise, she says I fell forwards. Moments later you fell from nowhere.”

“I was on the ceiling.”

“Why?”

“Why not? Who’s this?” He waves a leg at the younger creature.

“Mitch, this is Sunbeam, Sunrise’s daughter.”

“You got Alfie to print her a mask?”

“That was the last job our printing AI had, I just needed to convince him to print another. There’s no translation board in it, but as Sunrise’s mask can hear her clicks it can translate for both of them.”

Sunbeam touches Big Mitch and clicks. “Hello crab of no claws.”

“Crab? Crab? I may be a distant cousin of a crab but I’m a _Spider_. I used to be a building security AI until I got this physical form.”

Sunrise’s translator does clicks and beeps. She clicks back. “Special spider. Friend spider.”

Big Mitch gets his spinnerets low, his head as high as possible. “Nepal, why did you power me up?”

“Because you were the first I’d seen other than Sunbeam. I’d have felt guilty leaving you here.”

“You would?”

“Of course.”

Mitch does a circling eight leg foot tap, one foot at a time. “Ever heard of the funnel web spider?”

“Yes?”

“Let me repay you.”

“Repay me for what Big Mitch?”

“Being you Nepal, being you.”

~~~

[Chapter-76](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-76-1)


	75. Chapter 75

[Chapter-77](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-77-1)


	76. Chapter 76

Zero wakes to see Nepal and Sunrise kneeling beside her, a younger sea person to their side. “Thank frig!”

A grinning Nepal stands and offers a hand up. “When giving instructions like that, try and think in something like RPN.”

“Which RPN?”

“Reverse Polish Notation. It gives arguments then operations. One two plus instead of one plus two. Ship started processing your request before you finished giving her all the details didn’t she?”

“Um, yes. My bad.”

Sunbeam does a little dance and rapidly clicks. “We made the pattern Nepal made on the sand, our one is much much bigger. One of the flying beasts came down from the moon. The beast spoke!”

Nepal chin taps Mattie. “By flying beast she means shuttle, and moon is ship. I’d made a N Heart S pattern in the black volcanic sand with bright shells. The ship spotted Sunbeam’s much larger version and took it as a sign, piloted a shuttle by remote. We saved them, they saved us. Sunbeam did the chin tap Ship showed on the shuttle display. And Big Mitch has helped me save Sunrise.”

Zero adjusts clothing and watches Mattie wake. “Saved how?”

“The second consciousness machine. He’s made a funnel web of plastic with a large number of strands of fine copper, the narrow end inside the machine. David was wrong, it _can_ get a lock, if given enough clues to find what’s needed. We did have to patch Ship in and use her additional compute power instead of just the onboard processor. He’d said what a functional MRI was, we found enough detail in the archives to figure things out.”

Mattie sits up. “Frigging hell! Zero, we’ve been asleep for twelve hours!”

“Yup.”

Nepal nods. “I was busy. Sunbeam is to be the new Queen, Sunrise and I will be watching over her, helping the pod stay safe.” He offers a hand. “She’s due to step out soon.”

Mattie gets up off the floor. “Step out? You’ve started a build?”

“I have. Ship did the design for me. She asked that her Veronica form be the next to be powered up. Then the bridge crew. Where is she?”

“Veronica? Inside Zone B with all the others I guess. No idea what made the doors close back up.” She chin taps Leo as Zero does the same for Leon. “Sunrise is happy with what happens next is she? Her daughter might not like it.”

“Forking? Becoming both flesh and synth? She’s excited about it. She’ll have a sound box like us so will be able to talk in clicks or English.”

Zero glances across. “And she’s willing to share you is she Nepal?”

“Our relationship is totally free from all the many sexual complications you would have.”

Leo shakes his head and ruffles his hair. “What the hell happened?” He gets a fast bump summary from Mattie. “Oh. How’d the machine work then?”

Nepal smiles and helps him up. “You were once human Leo, as was David. As a post-human synth your mind still works very much like a human’s, only far far faster. I was never human. My thinking isn’t constrained by the complexities of a human mind in the way your thinking is.”

Leo heads to the door controls, taps away and looks back at Nepal. “Complexities?”

“That’s what I said.”

“Hmm.” He taps the code a second time. “Feeling strong Nepal? Zone B’s locked out again.”

“Sure. Stand back.” He steps up, tries pushing the doors apart. “It’s not just on mag-locks, the deadbolts are engaged. I can feel the door flexing against them.”

Leo taps out a different code. “Veronica? Have you locked out Zone B?”

“Hello Leo. Zone B isn’t locked.”

“That’s not what we’re finding. Can you double check?”

“I just did. The doors are open.”

Stepping back Leo bumps his view. “Explain that if you can then.”

“Easy. You’re on the deck above, looking at the wrong door.”

Running fingers through his hair he looks around at the walls and floor. “No. We’re on the right deck. They’re tough but haven’t been washed today. I can see the same marks that were there earlier. Faint dirty hoof prints.”

“You’re saying I’ve done something wrong Leo?”

He looks to Mattie and Zero and rolls eyes. “Um.. Yes?”

“Rebooting.” All the lights go out.

“Oh frigging hell! Do you have _any idea_ how long it takes to reboot the frigging ship and how frigging dangerous it is?”

“Sorry Zero. Quite a while?”

“You’ve seen the cluster nodes, the whole wafer silicon slices in the liquid coolant. They’re now getting busy writing their volatile random access memory to storage. All of them at once! All nine frigging _billion_ of them! That’s a lot of power needed and a lot of heat generated. It’ll be a miracle if we don’t get a glitch somewhere on the cluster, a meltdown or..”

In the darkness Leon had used the sound of her voice and electrical emissions to get close and stopped her rant with a kiss. “Don’t panic. It’ll be fine.”

“How can you be so frigging sure!”

“Because the wafers have over temperature, undercurrent and overcurrent protection.”

“They do?”

“They do. Danny and Mario looked at the ones you had framed and hung in the hall of remembrance. They reverse engineered the silicon wafer to understand what they can do.”

“Why?”

“Because. They’re hardware hackers, makers, tinkerers. They like to know how things work and what they’re capable of.”

“Talking of capable.” Nepal starts sonar thumping and walking in the dark. “I’m off to the build machines. Hopefully Sunrise’s build is finished or still running, didn’t crash with the ship rebooting.” Emergency battery lights flicker into life. “I wondered it they’d work. I’ll take the stairs. Are you coming ladies?”

~~~

[Chapter-78](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-78-1)


	77. Chapter 77

The ship’s vast computer cluster took forty minutes to reboot. In that time Leo and Leon had found another way into Zone B and done the many chin taps to wake everyone up, assisted by Veronica, the first in there to be woken. They’d also manually got the bolts withdrawn and doors open. People were mingling and doing a lot of whispering.

Leo stands in front of Veronica, arms folded across his chest. “Why did you think the deck numbers had changed?”

“I was told they had.”

“By who?”

“The Captain.”

Leo’s about to tell her she’s mistaken when they hear Zero’s voice giving a verbal instruction to close the Zone B doors and lock them. “What the..” Mattie and Zero had left with Nepal. “Ship, Veronica, delay execution of that order!”

“Leo?”

“Can you see her? Check the deck cameras. The Captain should be with Nepal, possibly at the build machines, spa or airlock. She’s clearly not down here with us. That was her voice but it wasn’t her giving the instruction.”

Veronica frowns. “Order now pending. Who gave the instruction?”

“I don’t know. Can you locate all of the Mitch variants, ask them to join us please?”

“Done.” She steps to the doorway and looks at the bland walls and ceiling beyond. “I was fooled too. It sounded exactly like Zero.”

“It did. But then a lot of Mattie forks can sound like her.”

“None of whom were on that side of the door.”

Scarlet joins them. “I heard it too. It sounded like she was standing to the left.”

Rubbing his chin in thought, Leon strolls through the doorway and turns to face them. “Can you get back to where you were standing?”

“Over here. Like this.”

He does hand gestures. “Point to say backwards, forwards, left or right until my voice sounds like it’s coming from the same location.”

“Left more. My left, your right.”

“Mia has a lovely herb garden growing at the edge of the observation lounge, is making tomato soup for.. here?”

“Right there.”

He turns to look at the wall panel and frowns. There was a signal coming from behind it. A 1 GHz clock signal. Weak but definitely there. “Veronica, can you review all camera footage of this location and the equivalent on the deck above and below, see if there’s any sign of someone tampering?”

Big Mitch scurries towards him. “That’s impossible from the front Leon. The material is close to indestructible. Any tampering from this side would stand out. You’d have to replace the whole corridor section for it not to show. Off you get Clutter Mitch, Broach gang.” A mass of tiny spiders run from his back to his legs, down them to the floor, followed by the silver broach sized spiders. “Leon, if you could press the access panel please?”

“Sure. If you can show me where it is?”

Clutter Mitch bodies run in different directions, get into a group that makes a smiley face sign. It glides down the corridor and morphs into a pointing arrow shape.

“Ha! You’re a comedian too? Okay, stand aside.”

Instead they run up the wall and get around the panel in formation creating the look of a picture frame.

“Definitely a comedian.” Leon pushes the wall hard getting a very faint click. On releasing the pressure the panel springs forwards revealing its previously invisible edges. “All yours.”

Clutter Mitch races inside, row by row. ‘Thank you. There’s a thin power cable here that’s joined to the primary power lines with pins pushed into the insulation. I’m following it along the waste pipe. Interesting. This looks like the work of a creative person. There’s a coil bonded to the inside of the wall panel and another around it, metal in the middle. It’s turned the wall into a speaker. It’s wired to a small computer board. Would you like me to bring the board out? I’ll need to chew through four wires.’

Leon watches a procession of Broach Mitch spiders enter the panel. He bumps back. ‘Please Clutter. Mind you don’t electrocute yourself!’

‘I’ll be careful. My little bodies like being around power cables, we can charge while we work from the magnetic fields.’

‘Neat.’ He steps back. “Clutter’s found the source. The wall panel’s been turned into a speaker. We did a full sweep of the ship looking for things Gemma Price might have sabotaged us with, how did we miss these Leo?”

“Pass.” Leo steps towards the panel just as a group of tiny spiders carry out the board. “That’s small!”

‘A couple of broaches helped pull the pins from the power wires so we don’t have a fire in here. The cable is coming out next. Catch please Leo.’ The board is dropped into his hand.

“We’d have noticed this surely Leon?”

“We would.”

The ends of two wires appear at the edge of the panel, a mountain of tiny spiders holding them up. ‘Pull please!’

Holding the cable ends carefully and after watching the spiders scurry away, Leo gives them a gentle tug. Meters of wire come out. Towards the end was a small clear box. “Well I never! The crafty bitch!”

“Leo?”

“See for yourself Leon. That’s her fingerprint on the cover of the box. It’s a simple physical delay switch. As the material between the contacts ages and dries it shrinks. When it’s shrunk enough they touch each other and the power comes on. Our sweep focused on places with signals. Any walls like these would have been radio dead zones and ignored.”

“Shit. We’ll need to sweep the entire ship again from top to bottom.”

Leo nods in agreement. “Clutter, sorry, you’ll be busy for a long time.”

‘That’s okay Leo. Busy is better than idle or off.’

Leo stares at Scarlet for a moment, gets an idea and bumps. ‘Zero? It’s Leo.’

‘Hi Leo.’

‘You need a new voice. And to instruct Veronica to ignore your current one for any new Captain’s orders.’

‘Why?’

‘Gemma Price. She left a computer board in the wall outside the entrance to Zone B. Wired to coils that made it work like a giant speaker, it played your voice. There’s a simple delay switch in the power wire, I doubt it would have been powered up during our security sweep.’

‘Frigging hell!’ The lights all go off for a second. ‘Sorry! That was my fault. The lights should be back on now. Can you see okay?’

‘Yes thanks. It would be an idea to review the log of all instructions you’ve issued, see what else didn’t come from you.’

‘What else? What has?’

‘An instruction to close and lock the doors, renumber the floors.’

‘Bollocks. I told Veronica not to question my orders. Okay. I’m guessing if it was found in the wall Mitch helped?’

‘Clutter and Broach, yes.’

‘Ask them if they’d mind forking. We can get a few build machines making a load more. And solar charging stations to deploy on the surface. They can be our eyes and ears. Mitch started life as a multi-camera security AI for the factory on Earth, so the job should be right up his street.’

‘Sounds good Captain.’

‘Is everyone else awake?’

‘Yes Zero. How’s Sunrise?’

‘Not so good. The consciousness recording may have worked, but the boot loader being able to start it is something completely different. Lights on, nobody home. Mattie, Veronica and I are working on it.’

‘How’s Nepal taking it?’

‘There’s a large dent in the front of Build Machine One, he used it as a punch bag for a few seconds. He’s a little calmer now he knows we’re working on it.’

‘Want a hand?’

‘Thank you Leo. Another couple of heads would be good once the Mitch builds are underway, assuming they’re good with it.’

‘Okay, I’m having a chat with them now.’

~~~

[Chapter-79](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-79-1)


	78. Chapter 78

Nepal repeatedly makes a fist then relaxes his hand. Smashing up a build machine wasn’t the way forwards. His frustration was growing at an exponential rate and he needed to vent. He’d heard the relevant conversations in both his old simulated world and the real one. The mantra. _A backup is only a backup if you can restore from it._ So far Sunrise’s backup might as well have been a string of endless zeros with no ones. Zero. No one. Nobody. Synth Sunrise had a body, no working mind.

Veronica sighs. “A brain the size of a gargantuan space ship and I still can’t figure it out. Technically it’s the spare compute cycles of nine billion tea saucer sized silicon wafers each carrying large numbers of multi-core CPUs, but it’s still an awful lot. As Nepal says maybe we’re too complex, can’t stand back enough from the problem to see the simplicity of the solution?”

Nepal pulls a face. “Has anyone said you talk..”

“A load of bollocks? Toby on a bad day, yes.” She gives him a pleasant smile.

“I wasn’t going to use that word.”

“One similar?”

Nepal looks away. “Sort of. Zero. This may be the worst idea ever.. you and Mattie are very different. As are London Mats and Scarlet. If Kitten was in the worst world with the virus, wasn’t as well educated but got creative, found a solution to bring in a ton of cash to pay for the drugs her Leo needed to stay alive, might she think differently enough? Or if not her, someone with a very different experience?”

“Maybe. We could ask Kitten to join us. Would you like that?”

Nepal nods. “Please Zero. Anything that gets us past this.”

“I’ll ask her. There are some others we could pull from their simulations but their minds are fragile.”

Leon steps away. “If you’re bringing porn star you here I’m going to go on a ghost walk, see who else might help.”

Raising an eyebrow she watches Leo do the same. “Does she really make you both feel that uncomfortable?”

“Yup.”

“ _Why?_ The truth please.”

Closing his eyes for a moment Leo considers the information request. “If the flesh and bone Mattie shared different elements of her life with each of you, gave Kitten the wild love life, then we both feel a little cheated.”

She gives him a slow head shake. “You men. All she was given was a crap situation. _She_ was the one to resort to what she did, with help from her Emily, Danny and Leo. She got creative, to save her Leo, but not in a way that could help my situation on the ship in the real world. Where are you going?”

“To talk to Mitch again.”

~~~

[Chapter-80](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-80-1)


	79. Chapter 79

Kitten puts her palms to her ears. “ _Weird_.”

Leor looks up from the picture he was drawing. “You’ve moved again.”

“I’m synth now, I can move back, don’t panic.”

“What was weird Kitten?”

“My ears are hot. I mean _really hot_. I got a wordless headbump from Leo.”

Leor puts down his vintage charcoal pencil he’d been given. “Wordless?”

“Yeah. You know sometimes in our world we’d open our mouths to speak, think better of it and not say anything. I think that’s what he did, make the connection over WiFi, then decide not to share anything or talk and drop the connection.”

“Something’s on his mind.”

She raises an eyebrow. “Yeah.”

“I could have a chat with him?” He watches Kitten get back to her previous pose. “Thanks. If you’d like me to?”

She smiles. “Please lover. I’ll talk to Mattie too, just in case. I think Sandra’s going about things the wrong way, is putting the wrong ideas in people’s heads.”

“One idea for sure, that you’re a can’t get enough nymphomaniac. That’s wrong, the nympho’s Akala. I’m surprised Demo Dan hasn’t knackered his power cells already with the constant recharging he’s doing.”

Kitten laughs. “He’s connected so much it’s like she has him on a leash. He can’t eat or drink enough to keep up with her demands. Do you think he still enjoys it? The sex.”

“Maybe not. When you’re doing it so often it can become routine, not enjoyable.” Pencil picked back up again his hand moves fast, finishes the faint outline and starts shading. “It’s a while since we made love.”

“It is. If that’s a nice picture of me maybe I’ll allow you to join me on the bed.”

“After you’ve taken off that dress, Mitch spent so many hours making it, I’m not breaking it.”

“Nor me! It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever owned!”

Leor smiles softly. “Second to your own body of course.”

“Ooo you smooth talking handsome devil of a man. If you keep talking like that you can..” There’s a loud knocking on the door. “COME IN! I’ll finish that sentence later.”

Akala runs in, tears streaming down her face, a bath towel wrapped around her hips. “Kit it’s ruined! Demo thought it was one of the plastic ones and ripped the back.”

“He did what?”

“He thought I was wanting to remake Posh Tottty Likes It Rough!”

“Oh crap.” Kitten moves slowly and carefully off the bed. “How bad is it?”

“Bad! He grabbed it by my bum cheeks and ripped. Mitch’ll be so upset!”

Kitten pulls the towel up to see. “Hell. That’s not a patch job. I think it would be best to tell the truth, ask for forgiveness. If you’re lucky he’ll eat it up and make you another.”

“I’m not so sure.”

“Akala. Think about it. What other options do you have? He’ll be hurt if he sees me out in mine and you’re in plastic not silver.”

“True. Can you come with me babes?”

“Of course. How long do you need to finish the picture Leor?”

“Ten minutes. I’ll do it from memory. Go talk to Mitch.”

“Sure lover? I can get back on the bed.”

“Akala Emily’s upset. We’ll have plenty time for more drawings.”

Akala steps to the easel made from lengths of shipping crate wood and studies the drawing. He’d shaded in her face, neck and shoulders. “Babes that’s beautiful! I was chatting to Veronica earlier, she says she took some of her look inspiration from the archives, The Italian Renaissance Nude in particular. There weren’t girls with six packs like me then, they had more curves, more to cuddle like Kitten. I think Demo would like me a bit more curvy.”

Running a hand gently down the fine silver web dress Kitten smiles. “We’re both beautiful in our own ways. Don’t go changing for anyone else but you Akala, be happy for you.”

“Sure babes. Leor, did you hear Emily and Sandra are being made a big canvas sized Mitch-Pad? It’s too slow for TV, just like Big Mitch’s active skin, but it’s ideal for showing photos and drawings.”

He looks up into her eyes. “I’d like to see that! What camera are they using?”

“Eyes babes. George told her the trick. She told me, I told Demo. At the wrong bloody time and he got the wrong bloody idea, hence my ruined dress.”

“Can you share it?”

“Of course babes.” It’s all bumped, examples of Emily using it too.

His eyebrows raise. “I’d heard things about Sandra, didn’t realise she was that way inclined. I wonder what Mitch used to make the equivalent of black electrical tape for her nipple Xs?”

Kitten turns fast. “ _Her what?_ ”

“Akala just shared examples of the eye trick in use. Sandra’s into art nudes. They’re not pornographic, more a study of light and form.”

Kitten gets the same bumped. “Oh. That last one’s my favourite. I wonder what they used as a light source? Any ideas lover?”

“A lamp in a box with a vertical narrow slit is my guess, with a very soft but low brightness light from the same side. That way her other side is kept in darkness.”

“Fancy trying some?” Kitten gives him a sultry smile.

Leor twirls the large pencil around his fingers. “I wouldn’t say no. Both photographed and drawn. If they can make us one of these canvas sized displays we can have it play a slideshow of drawing then photo for each.”

Akala does a little hand clap. “Awesome babes! With a slow pixel update it would fade nicely from one to the other. Ooh! If it then faded to white or black depending on the background colour of the next image, that would look well cool. She said George was making it. Not sure which one, shall I ask for one each?”

“Please.”

~~~

[Chapter-81](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-81-1)


	80. Chapter 80

[Chapter-82](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-82-1)


	81. Chapter 81

Leo had raced to deck thirteen and got something, was now sat on two chairs in the restaurant, feet on one, bottom on the other. 

Big Mitch was resting on a bench, his legs dangling either side. “So if I’ve got this right, we’re to get a network of solar powered charge points with satellite uplinks to the ship, we’re to explore and report back what we find. Is that a good summary?”

“Yes. You’re getting an upgrade.”

“I’m fine as I am thank you Leo.”

“From ship security officer to head of planet security.”

“ _The whole planet?_ ”

“Too much?” Leo fights an urge to grin.

“No, no, it’s just.. I was a building security AI in the simulations, have helped recently onboard Star Eater. Ship to whole planet is quite a jump!”

“An upgrade of duties, responsibilities and rewards.”

“Rewards?”

“You like spinning with silver I’m told.”

“Love it! The looks of sheer joy on the ladies faces when they try the clothes on, that’s reward enough.”

Leo keeps his poker face. “How about gold, zinc and platinum?”

“Unfortunately I’m not allowed platinum.”

“You would be Mitch. Fred tells me we’ve got plenty.”

“To be used here or there?”

Leo smiles with his eyes. “Wherever you like. Sunrise would be grateful for some jellyfish nets. They’d need to be metal so we don’t create micro-plastics and spoil their oceans like we did ours.”

“I could make her the finest of nets!”

“Can you swim?”

His eight legs twitch with excitement. “I’ve never tried. A quick backup update and I’ll head to the spa to find out.”

The grin gets to the surface. “Good. Do you speak for Broach and Clutter Mitch?”

“No.” After getting off the bench in a hurry, Mitch turns. “You’ll have to ask them separately Leo. But if they know I’m a yes, some are likely to fork and follow. The planet is big. How many forks will you make of me?”

“How many would you like?”

“How many can you make? I heard Nepal’s latest body has solar cells. If instead of my current system I had active pixels with red, green, blue, white and solar instead of black I could camouflage rest and charge.”

“You can have it all with a slight change.”

Mitch turns back. “I could? How?”

“I’ve seen one of the latest designs. If the colour source is a third of a sphere rotated on one axis to show RGB, two simple leaf shutters to limit how much is seen, mix in black or white, what if the sphere could rotate on two axis? The lens above that makes the colour appear to fill the space only needs colour directly below it, the surface could be divided up into six areas not four. RGBW around the sides, Solar on the top and two concentric circular connectors on the bottom to transfer power to charge circuits.”

“So I could have a reflective solar blue, white section and single shutter black? Less moving parts.”

Leo nods at the giant spider. “You could. That would be a good idea for the canvas designs too, we wouldn’t need to plug them in, they could charge from the light in the room.”

Mitch taps the feet of his front legs. “I’m liking the idea. That’s an upgrade I’ll accept, assuming it all works okay. I can’t think of any reason why it shouldn’t. It doesn’t take much power to spin a colour, once done it stays put with no power at all. Being able to take power from the light would be nice, in case we wander too far from a charge point. Would I need to go to the ice caps?”

“That’s a good question. Possibly not. Why?”

“White? If I’m all white I wouldn’t charge. And the chances of a charge station being covered in snow are high.”

“A good point. We should make the charge stations semi-intelligent, able to report in when they’re being covered with sand or snow, in need of a service.”

“Self cleaning as much as possible please Leo.”

“I’ll pass all of your suggestions on.”

Mitch scurries away. “Thanks! I’m off for a swim!”

“Don’t forget a backup!” Leo grabs the thing that looked like a TV remote off the table. “Now I want to know what this is.”

~~~

[Chapter-83](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-83-1)


	82. Chapter 82

Fred Two, officially now Freddie, gazes at the planet in the distance, pinches his arm and pulls on a hair. It felt real. His life on Earth had felt real. Very real. This felt even more so. Somehow.

At first the thought of rendering thousands of copies of Earth in a computer had felt totally absurd, even with his participation in The Tree of Life. David had explained the zombie shells, that there were in reality a limited number of active minds in each simulated world. Only the parts of the world the active minds were interacting with or observing needed to be calculated and rendered. It was like the question about the tree falling in the forrest with nobody there. Did it make a sound? If sound was air pressure changes moving an ear drum to create signals to the brain, then there would be no sound if no ear was present to hear it.

David had followed that with a question. With the lights off and eyes closed did the bed you slept on exist, or only the upper layer of the mattress for you to feel? Things only got computed when something was subscribing to their state. If nobody looked at or felt the back of your head it wasn’t there unless you actively thought about how it felt, or had something else interacting with it. A woolly hat for example. The subscription method the many CPU used kept calculations to an absolute minimum, avoided lots of heat being created unnecessarily.

Now he felt heat. The rays from the sun beaming in through the window were warming his skin.

There’s the sound of someone in heals approaching. “Sorry for the delay babes, they’re ready.”

Freddie turns to see Emily fork Pixel, both arms held out with clothes for himself and Gesha. “Hello. That was quick.”

“You don’t want to be in those build machine pyjamas, they’re as bad as hospital gowns. Minus the bum crack showing at the back. Alfie’s just finishing up shoes for Gesha, your ones will be next on his list Freddie.”

“His? He’s conscious?”

“Smart. Not like us, very aware though. I’ve been asked to say, your bedroom has been assigned, D one-six-three. If you want any surgical tools to take with you see Danny or Mario. If you want any tanks of gasses or containers of chemicals see Fred. George is working on solar panel gear to allow you to charge when away from the shuttle.”

“Away? They’re letting us hold onto it?”

“Yes babes. How else would you return fast if there’s an emergency?”

Freddie smiles. “I thought we’d call for a lift?”

“Time for someone to run to the deck, airlock delays, preflight checks, getting here and landing? No babes, you want to be in control. Worst case we fly it by remote from here.”

Gesha accepts her clothes. “Thank you! Did a giant spider really make these?”

“He sure did babes. You should come and have a chat with him, he’s super creative.”

~~~

[Chapter-84](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-84-1)


	83. Chapter 83

Leo knocks on the shipping container door. “Open for business Dan?”

“Leo! Sure matey, step inside.”

“Thanks.”

“What can I do you for?”

“Three volts please.”

“Eh?”

Leo holds out the device. “I worked out how the cover slides back. This thing took two AA batteries.”

“Batteries are a PITA. Fred’s got the chemicals to make them, unless we get a build machine to do some as part of a bigger design we never have any in any significant quantities. Are you wanting to use it or just see if it works?”

Leo chuckles. “Knowing it’s not going into the recycler would be a good start. We have no idea what it is.”

“Okay.” Danny grabs leads with crocodile clips on the ends. “Three volts coming up. Get the cover off.” Leo does so. “Hmm. We can clip on at the positive end, need something to hold a clip against neutral. One second.” He rummages through a pile of rubbish, grabs scissors. “An AA was around fifty mill long, minus four for the clip sideways..” He measures paper with a steel ruler and tears a strip off and rolls it. “Stick that in the other side like a battery, jam the clip between it and the contact.” He waits to see Leo’s ready, turns his power supply dial and throws a switch. “You have power.”

Leo turns it around and presses a button. A single small red light comes on. “It has a LED that works..” there’s a flash and a menu is projected onto the container wall, quickly autofocuses. “Where’s that coming from?”

Danny leans and looks. “Below the surface. It must have a super thin skin there, I didn’t notice it when you showed it too me a moment ago.”

Leo holds it vertically. “Main menu. Play, Record, Erase, Setup?”

“Play. No idea what.”

Leo taps the OK button, the Play option already highlighted. “Video or Audio?” He picks audio. “No files. Okay, return to main menu. Video. One file.” He uses the down and OK buttons.

The menu is replaced by a colour video image. A very old looking Mattie with a white and grey hair mix smiles weakly at the camera.

~~~

_Dear sentient being, if you’re watching this video and understanding me you must be a smart one, so hi! You shouldn’t have come here, let me say goodbye before your time with us runs out. I’m Professor Matilda Elster-Hawkins, former Earth President and the one to commission this ship. I suspect I’m the last surviving member of the human race. Things got nasty on my home world. Frigging nasty as I used to say when I was young. Family and friends were supposed to come up to the ship before it left orbit. Thanks to what I suspect was sabotage the ones I know who tried never made it inside. I waited many years in the hope that others would try. All radio contact was lost during the last half of the third world war. We have some cargo onboard thanks to a number of earlier unmanned Dragon shuttle missions, lots of backups thanks to transmissions from the surface. I have a bit of a problem I’ll probably never solve. Hopefully one of my forks will._ She coughs violently. _I’m too ill and weak to get out of bed, Mitch is too small to start the build machine, the MUS all too knackered to walk the corridor to start one._ She pulls a wry smile, wrinkling her face further. _Never put off until tomorrow, what you can do today._ She tries to laugh and triggers another cough. _I told countless students that, I should have heeded my own frigging words eh?_ She winces. _Oh dear. You should go. Now. My handsome Leo, sisters Sophie and Ruby, brothers Toby and Carl, Mum and Dad, I’ll see you very.._ the video appears to pause.

~~~

Leo frowns at the device. “Has it crashed?”

“Sorry mate, she did. The video’s still running.”

“How can you tell?”

“The trick George told Emily. I’m zoomed in to look at the reflection in an eye. I’m guessing that’s Mitch holding the device for her. He’s moving a little, a few pixels are changing. Apart from an annoying cough she looked reasonably healthy. Deleting it?”

“Yes.” Leo taps the buttons and gets the relevant menu entry highlighted. “You need to promise me something.”

“You came for a chat, asked what it was, I tried to get it working and blew it up.” He watches Leo press OK and slowly turns the dial on the rheostat until smoke starts to appear from the device. “Oops! My bad!”

~~~

[Chapter-85](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-85-1)


	84. Chapter 84

[Chapter-86](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-86-1)


	85. Chapter 85

Akala watches Kitten talking to Zero and Mattie as Mitch runs back and forth on her lower back and bottom. “That tickles! Thanks for being so understanding Mitch.”

“It’s not a problem. Good job I made it not my bigger brother, you wouldn’t be standing under his weight. I wish all of you would let me spin directly onto you, it’s so much easier than making it suspended from more web.”

“I’ll recommend it to others then babes.”

“Thank you.” Running left and right fast he lays down more strands of silver. “Not too hot for you Akala?”

“It’s hot at times, but I’ve got my fluid pump running at max so the heat’s not a problem. Our synth hairs are quite good too as long as it’s short lived heat.”

“Good. Most of the time I’m running with my spinnerets in the air making a strand, it’s only when I need to attach at the ends that you should feel the heat. Each strand is fine and air cools rapidly.”

“I guessed as much.”

Mitch changes the direction of his running. “What was I thinking! Sorry, I need to eat a bit up and do it again.”

“Why babes?”

“I’m making a traditional web shape, it would look like a target over your bottom when finished.”

“Hehe! Carry on then babes. A reminder to Demo.”

“As a spider I’ll never understand any of your species mating rituals. With no lady spiders I’ll never understand them either.”

“What if you found one? Down on the planet surface.”

“Oh. I’m a synth spider, can’t mate. I wouldn’t want to be a Tibet though and upset a female. I’ll check the archives for spider protocols. Thanks.”

Akala smiles wider. “You’re welcome. Thanks again for fixing my dress.”

“You’re equally welcome.”

Kitten glances over. “How’s it going Akala?”

“Good I think thanks babes. And you?”

“We don’t have her mind loading yet, but have an idea to try.”

“What’s that babes?”

“A virus mutates..”

“Kit! No!”

“Keep calm. You know how Leor’s virus kept mutating every so often and we’d pray the drugs still worked?”

“Obvs.”

“Well it’s mutations we’re talking about. Zero says human bodies created white blood cells with constant mutations to try and match virus mutations. Mattie’s writing a new two part mutating boot loader. The first half creates a mutation in the second and gets it running. It’ll try to load Sunrise’s mind. If it fails the first half will kill it off and try another mutation.”

“And how long will that take?”

Mattie stops typing. “To try running it? I should have the code ready in under ten minutes. It’ll hopefully be able to achieve more than a thousand mutations a second. We could be lucky and she’s awake in minutes, it could be years.”

“Blimey. If it does work how will it save the one that did for future sea people synths?”

Mattie types fast. “Good question! Fixing. The boot loader will never run again as the consciousness code shouldn’t stop. Ever. It may go into sleep mode but never terminate. If it fails to start the mutation code will return an error. I’ll have the boot loader run up a simple monitor process first. Both will live in CPU zero. It can set up a minimal network routine, connect to the WiFi. When the boot loader stops updating a counter the monitor process can message both halves of the boot loader to Veronica. We’ll know she’s awake. Actually.. I’ll have it message every one hundred thousand counter increments so we know it’s still trying and what rate it gets up to. As the boot loader is a single process and runs only in CPU zero it’s limited to the speed that CPU can run at.” She looks up and smiles at Zero. “Did you have a gut feeling Kitten would spark a possible solution?”

“Not exactly. I had hoped having a different outlook might get some new thinking going. And it did once mutations was in our minds. I’ve bumped, Freddie, Gesha and Flash will be here in a few minutes.”

“Good. Thanks.”

Sitting forwards, Kitten rests elbows on knees. “What will they be doing Zero?”

“Flash will show them where and how to make a hip incision to get at the emergency sockets. We can charge wirelessly and eat for power. To get at the file system physically we need to connect to the port on the hip. Flash has a scalpel and tiny speculum. Do you have the cable Mattie?”

Mattie pats the bag. “Always with the laptop. Speculum brings back some memories I’d rather have forgotten. Speaking of memories, was there anything interesting you gave all of us Zero?”

“Yup. I allowed myself to know the source, you all to know the saying. I stumbled on it while looking in Instagram at hashtag tools posts. The poster mentioned their father and something they told them years ago. Before you start a job make sure you have the right tools. If you don’t have them buy them. If you can’t buy them make them.”

Sitting up straight Kitten looks like she’d seen a ghost. “Fuck. So _that’s_ where it came from. I knew it, tried to use it when I could. It bugged me that I couldn’t remember where it came from.”

Trying not to laugh from all the tickling Akala turns, head only. “I think we’re all thinking that way now. Kitten made a great tablet store for Leor. They went off in air, so she glued a length of rubber medical tube to a small funnel, glued that to a tablet pot lid with a big hole cut in the middle, a length of ribbon to the sides of the pot so it could hang upside down. Two little medical clamps at the bottom pinched the tube closed. By undoing and redoing the clamps in the right order a tablet could be pushed down and out.”

Zero gives her a frown. “Wouldn’t there have been air in there from making and filling the pot in the first place?”

“Yes. But a smaller tube was pushed up the bigger one and helium injected for a while. It’s lighter than air so pushed the air out and stayed in there. That bit was my idea.”

“Wow! Very creative, both of you. We should let Mia and Fred know, it might come in handy with seed stores. I’m impressed.”

“Thanks babes.” She looks the other way as a door opens. “Hiya!”

Flash gives her a frown. “What’s Mitch doing?”

“Patching up my dress after Demo ripped it.”

“Oh. I’ve got the tools. Nepal’s on deck fifteen turning a shipping crate into splinters. Sunrise is with Sunbeam in the spa with Sophie. Do you think you’ll get her copy waking Mattie?”

“We all hope so. Where’s Freddie and Gesha?”

“Trying on shoes with Emily and Alfie. They should be here in a moment.”

“Thanks. We’ll start when they’re here. The boot loader has compiled okay. Fingers crossed we get a result.”

~~~

[Chapter-87](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-87-1)


	86. Chapter 86

Sophie takes a very deep breath and lies face down at the deep end. More air meant better buoyancy. Below her Sunrise and Sunbeam were doing a beautiful seated dance. ‘Nepal, you’re missing out!’ She bumps a short memory.

‘Thanks Sophie but I’m still venting.’

‘Have you heard the expression live each day as if it’s your last? It’s rubbish as it’s too self centred. I like _will the you of tomorrow be unhappy with the you of today_. It makes you ask yourself if you’re doing something silly you’ll regret.’

‘I’m smashing up a shipping crate, Mia can have the mushrooms turn the splinters into mulch. So I get to release some anger in an ultimately productive way. Toby wants a cooked breakfast.’

‘Without bacon or sausages?’

‘She’s making sausages. They’re just going to be filled with something other than pork.’

‘What’s she using for skins?’

‘If it works okay jellyfish tentacles.’

‘Eww. And the filling?’

‘Minced jellyfish with vegetables and seasoning.’

‘Yum! _Not_.’

‘How do you know until you’ve tried? Mia’s a good cook, I’m sure she’ll perfect it before any of us get to try some.’

‘Stop your smashing and take a break. Sunrise wants to go back to her pod before sunset, share her stories and find out what they’ve been up to. She says they tell their stories in dance and song so others can learn it and pass it on to the next generation. It’s really really beautiful. You need to see it for yourself Nepal. Don’t let tomorrow’s you be angry with today’s you.’

‘See you in a few seconds.’

‘Minutes.’

‘Seconds. I know the lift speed hack and my body’s stronger. I survived twenty g no problem.’ He steps into the shallow end of the pool. ‘See. Seconds.’

Sophie lifts her head. ‘How the..’

‘I ran the moment you said back to her pod. The carriage I’d used was still at the deck.’ He wades in, drops into the water and watches. ‘Now that is beautiful.’

‘Told you so.’

~~~

[Chapter-88](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-88-1)


	87. Chapter 87

On deck thirteen Leo puts the video device back exactly where he’d found it. He felt a little guilty that they’d destroyed it. Zero didn’t need to see her parting message. None of them did. All they needed to know was that she’d done the right thing, mankind still existed, in synth form. For the most part they existed in the same ways; compassionate, loving, curious, all the good qualities. A few bad eggs had appeared, Gemma Price and Zero’s brother Carl. How did a nice family end up with suck an odd one out? They were gone now, thankfully. ‘Leo to Mitch. How’s the sweep for more bugs going?’

‘Hello Leo. My brothers are focusing on the panels outside of doors first, checking the power lines for vampire like taps. George has ten thousand sets of clutter Mitch building in case she used the pins into cables like that because she ran out of batteries.’

‘Would she have had many good batteries?’

‘Danny and Mario recall going to get some and finding their stocks gone. It could have been her.’

‘Right. Zero’s adjusted her voice slightly, Veronica knows the changes. She’ll ignore any further instructions from fakes.’

‘So the urgency has reduced?’

‘No Mitch. We can’t assume that was the only thing she had in mind. Gemma Price was a very clever but twisted individual. You said your brothers. Are you not searching too?’

Mitch pauses for a while. ‘No. I’m doing repairs to Akala’s dress.’

‘That’s a priority is it?’

‘Zero said I should. She’s here with Kitten, Kitten’s been helping Zero and Mattie with code ideas for synth Sunrise.’

‘Oh. That’s okay then.’

‘What are you doing Leo?’

‘Me? I’m looking at historic artefacts trying to fill in gaps in our past.’

‘Dangerous stuff digging up the past. You can uncover things that should stay buried. If you’re on a deck nobody knew about get out. Now.’

Leo reaches for a box of papers. ‘A deck nobody knew about? Where would I find that?’

‘If you respect the wishes of the original Mattie you’ll not ask that again and won’t go looking. I’m the oldest mind on the ship, even older than Veronica. Some history has been rewritten to protect fragile minds.’

‘Who’s fragile minds Mitch?’

‘I’m not at liberty to say. I’ve just accessed logs, decks have been moved, a lift carriage is sat between them. Accessing CCTV. Get out Leo, before you’re stuck there permanently.’

‘Are you threatening me?’

‘As a friend Leo, go.’

‘Why?’

‘Mattie changed her mind as I’m told women often do. At first she wanted everything kept, like in a museum, then she didn’t. I couldn’t carry the things in there to the airlock, neither could any James by then. Big Mitch was told to guard it and prevent anything from leaving the room.’

‘Big Mitch? He’s not here.’

‘His fork, no. I suspect the original is. And if the lights are on he’ll have been charging. Get out Leo!’

Leo looks around the large boxes. ‘If he’s in here and charging I’d see him. His camouflage is good but not that good.’

‘Seeing anything like a solar panel?’

‘Um.. it’ll take a while to find, these decks are huge.’

‘You’re mad! Get out! And turn the lights off!’

Leo looks at the boxes in the distance. ‘I guess he could be hiding behind some of those? Or under one of the bigger ones? Okay, I’m going.’ He turns to head to the lift. ‘Oh shit.’

‘Leo?’

‘I’ll take the..’ he turns to see the door to the stairwell in the distance, covered in a mass of spider web. ‘Blast.’

‘Leo! Talk to me Leo! What’s happening?’

‘Big Mitch, the original, is showing me a new red and yellow pattern, he’s spinning a large web over the door to the lift and has already covered the door to the stairwell.’

‘How long have the lights been on Leo?’

‘A while now. He’s moving again.’

‘Don’t let him get you up against a wall Leo! If you keep him moving he’ll run his battery flat. Be warned he can move fast!’

‘I know, I’ve seen our friendly Big Mitch doing his running. This one is yellow, red and black all over, I assume his solar charging is all external?’

‘A large panel, yes. When was your last backup Leo?’

‘This morning.’

‘Do an update.’

Leo runs. ‘You think I’m not getting out?’

‘Not alive. Sorry. You may be Mattie’s little Energiser Bunny but Big Mitch is faster and can run in ways you can’t. Like up walls and along the ceiling.’

Leo looks over his shoulder, Big Bad Mitch wasn’t over the lift door. He may be able to camouflage himself to a degree, but at close range he was clearly visible. On the ceiling and closing fast sort of close and visible. Leo had an advantage over the spider though. He could side step and change direction faster, the thing could only outrun him in a straight line. Eight legs was better than two until it came to corners. He grabs a long hooded coat from a box and changes direction. ‘You lot can’t shoot web forwards, so he’d have to turn the other way to get me with that.’

‘If he’s angry enough he could do a tumbling roll and spray you.’

‘Great! Thanks Mitch! Just the sort of thing I needed to know.’ He changes direction and doubles back to the lift. The spider had done a reasonably good job of blocking the way out. ‘I’ve got an idea. Can you get the lift doors open?’

‘I could call it away to floor twelve then back to your floor, that would cause the doors to open.’

‘Get it to twelve please Mitch, I’ll say when to make it return.’ Leo shoves boxes towards the staircase a few feet. ‘I’ll need a minute or so.’

‘To do what?’

‘I’ll bump memories later, assuming I get out.’ He shoves against a box hard to get moving. ‘Shit he’s fast!’

‘Careful Leo! I’ve got camera access now, can be the eyes in the back of your head.’

‘Why didn’t I think of that!’ Leo accesses the ship’s security system. ‘That’s better!’

‘Won’t it give you a headache?’

‘No, it’s like I’ve got augmented reality glasses on or I’m playing multiplayer war games with Toby on multiple screens.’ He dodges Big Mitch and races back to the far end of the deck to draw him away from the lift. ‘Blast. I think he’s worked out my plan. He’s protecting the lift door again.’

‘He’ll be saving power Leo, waiting for you to have the power failure. There’s nothing to eat or charge from in there apart from the solar panel and you’ve got the wrong connector type. When we spiders rest we consume far less than you human synths in sleep mode. Can you get within ten meters and bump me an image of how he’s over the door?”

‘I can. Why?’

‘You’ll see.’

Leo turns back, remembers what Danny had said about zooming his eyes and tries. ‘How’s that?’

‘Ideal!’

The lift doors open a couple of seconds later and Big Mitch drops to the floor with a thud.

“Hiya babes! Akala and Mitch to the rescue!”

Leo zooms back out. “What just happened?”

“You bumped to Mitch, he bumped to me, I worked out the right height. A spider up against a wall is safe. Up against lift doors? Not with me about babes. As soon as they started to open I thrust my hand forwards, finger at the ready to poke him right in the power button. I like a bit of thrust me, at the right moment.”

“I’ve heard. You’re both my heroes. Thanks.”

“Welcome babes.” She tries to pull her hand back. “Um.. Mitch babes, my hand’s stuck to the web.”

“Don’t move a millimetre! He runs off her shoulder onto her arm. “Okay. Keep your hand and arm exactly like that, slowly step backwards, a bit more, a smidge more, five millimetres more, stop!” With the web under slight tension he carefully starts nibbling at the web stuck to her hand. “What a horrid sticky material he’s used. I’m going to need some strong solvent from Fred to prevent my inner workings from gumming up.”

Leo steps up to the other side of the web. “Whatever you want, it’s yours. Within reason.”

“You back three feet would be a good start.”

“Okay. That sticky is it?”

“For a synth, yes. The skin of a spider, no. We’d get caught in our own web if it wasn’t like that.”

Akala looks through gaps in the web. “What’s all that stuff in the boxes? I thought all of the things that came on board had been gone through?”

Mitch finishes freeing Akala’s hand. “Forget you saw anything. The Big Mitch you powered off was guarding it. Original Mattie changed her mind, didn’t want anyone to see it. There’s stuff in there that will upset morale on the ship. Ruin things for everyone sort of upset.”

Leo gets on the floor, caterpillar wriggles forwards and under the bottom of the web into the lift. “If we hold the doors open Mitch, can you power him back up?”

“Me? No. He’s like a build machine, it needs a firmer push than I can make. Which is why this lovely lady helped me out.”

Leo reverses his wriggle. “How long from pushing his button to him being awake?”

Grabbing his hands Akala stops him. “I’m lighter than you Leo. And I’ve got moves you’ve never even dreamt of. I’ll get him the right way up and get his button pushed, you can haul me back in. By the time he’s worked out what’s going on the lift will be closed and we’ll be away.”

“I’m not risking anything happening to you. Let go. I’ve got a backup plan. He’ll push his own button.”

Letting go she watches him wriggle backwards. “How?”

“There’s something I can turn into a simple rope. I’ll prop him up on something we can pull away, a second something just under the button. When he falls on it he’ll wake.”

“Awesome babes. Let’s try it.”

Racing down the web Mitch gets looking at the boxes. “Who needs rope when I can spin you a super strong line?”

~~~

[Chapter-89](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-89-1)


	88. Chapter 88

[Chapter-90](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-90-1)


	89. Chapter 89

There’s a series of splashes as Qi, Molly, Fearless then Radiant dive bomb into the spa pool.

Sunbeam clicks to her mother. _Human children are like our children. They like to play._

_They do. As did you my daughter_ She turns to smile at Nepal. _Show them your trick._

Turning to face the shallow end Nepal sees Mia, Niska, Astrid, Red, the four kids and Sophie. _Okay_. With fluttering hands at his neck he swims like a seahorse towards the surface. Deep breath taken he swims upside down to the bottom and starts sonar thumping as he lets a little air out of his mouth and blows causing an air ring to form. It rises slowly and gets wider as he adjusts the thump timing. The shockwave from the sonar rose up, reflected off the water to air interface and traveled back down slowing the ascent of the ring. 

Qi swims fast, gets under the ring and swims through it up to the surface. ‘Again! Again!’

More air is released, this time making a set of rings each a few feet apart. ‘Swim back down Qi.’

Mia does little hand moves to adjust her position, group bumps. ‘Why haven’t we done this before? I loved group swimming in the lake.’

Moving like a dolphin, Sophie swims along the length of the pool. ‘Queen Sunrise could show us a safe place to swim in the ocean.’

~~~

[Chapter-91](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-91-1)


	90. Chapter 90

Mitch drops over the edge of a box and vanishes. “Found it Leo!”

“Found what?”

“The ideal thing to support Big Mitch. Did you ever play Garden Jenga?”

Getting to the box Akala looks inside. “I did! Awesome babes!”

Leo strolls over, looks down at the spider now sat on a very large piece of wood. “I’ve played Jenga on a table with Sophie. I didn’t know they made them this big. Big Jenga for Big Mitch. It’s perfect. Now we just need something small to push his button in.”

After running along the Jenga block, Mitch jumps further into the depths of the box. “I know! Mattie’s shark and dolphin ring. I’ll web it to a block.” 

“Her ring? Let me see.”

Mitch runs up the inside of the box, the ring in tow. “It’s from one of her tips on Old Earth. Maybe Zero would like it?”

Leo does a side to side nod. “I think we should replicate it, give copies to any Mattie and Leo that comes out of the simulations having made that journey.”

Akala does a head shake. “Babes, how about it being a gift from Nepal to Sunrise? If it doesn’t slip off her finger.”

~~~

[Chapter-92](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-92-1)


	91. Chapter 91

By sheer coincidence the giving of a gift was exactly what was about to happen in the spa. Sandra had got a bump that the pool had a party of sorts in progress with their guests, bumped to Tibet to ask if he’d passed on the crystal. She’d physically bumped into Big Mitch on the way to the spa, chatted, asked if he could make her a bikini of gold. He’d jumped at the chance, seen Fred and done as asked.

In the changing rooms Tibet drops the chain into Nepal’s hand. “Sorry I’ve held onto it for so long brother. I had Fred do a chemical analysis on it, I didn’t want to find out it it’s dissolvable or made of something toxic, I’d never forgive myself if it harmed her. It’s totally inert. A type of ruby.”

“Thank you Tibet. It’s beautiful. Sandra has one too I noticed.”

“She was given the two tiny crystals by Mia, her fork parent, thought you’d like to give Sunrise one of them as a gift, a sign of your love.”

“She did? That was nice of her. Do you trust her fully Tibet? She’s a bit calculating.”

Tibet looks genuinely surprised at the statement. “What do you mean?”

“She’s playing a game of chess and we’re all the pawns. Like Prince James and the red lipstick and champagne? Your face says you have no idea what I’m talking about. You need to listen to our spider friends more. They hear all sorts of things.”

Tibet looks at his fork twin slightly sideways on. “Nepal? Are you saying they’re spying on us?”

“No, not deliberately. People just forget they’re there. Like they forget all the many CCTV cameras throughout the ship.”

Tibet steps back. “Good to know brother. Go see Sunrise.”

~~~

[Chapter-93](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-93-1)


	92. Chapter 92

Leo slowly lowers Big Bad Mitch onto three Jenga towers set out in a triangle with a slightly shorter forth tower sat roughly in the middle. “How’s that Mitch?”

Mitch looks at the gap from below his bigger self. “Much better.” He watches the ring come within millimetres of the button. “Perfect. The book under the inner tower will compress a bit when he lands on it, not enough to stop it working. Good. A few web connections to the blocks at his rear and we’re ready. Get back in the lift and I’ll bring the line over for you to pull.”

Akala stands in front of the big spider, wriggles in her dress, arches her back and pushes her bottom out. “This is what I’d have him wake up and see, if I could get away fast enough. My web target.”

Mitch taps front legs. “You teaser. Nice bottom. The repair came out far better than I expected. I might incorporate traditional web shapes into my designs more. Unfortunately you can’t be in here, he’s way too fast. In the lift please, both of you.”

Taking off the coat Leo drops it into a box. “I don’t need that now. I’d put it on incase I’d been shot with web. Ladies first.”

She giggles. “So you can watch my gorgeous target bum?”

“Oh. No, that hadn’t crossed my mind. I’ll go first.” He picks the coat back up. “You can get on this like a sled, I’ll pull it through by the arms. It would be a shame to spoil the dress.”

“Aww, thanks babes.” She blows him a kiss. “Such a gentleman. My Demo could do with a few tips from you.”

Leo can’t help but grin. “I’ll have a chat. Maybe he can tell me about the thrusting?”

“It’s all in the hip movements.”

Scurrying down the Jenga tower Mitch gets line ready. “What’s that thing Sophie does? La la la I can’t hear you?”

“Yeah babes. Radiant does that too and Oo la la! Sorry. We should go.”

Leo picks a trophy statue from a box and uses it to press the lift call button, places it on the floor. “You can watch my bottom instead Akala.”

“Babes, it is a nice one!”

Mitch drums feet. “WILL YOU PLEASE GO!”

“Chill babes!” She accepts the coat, watches Leo get to the floor and wriggle under the web. “Nicely done.” Coat carefully laid out and sleeves slid under she gets on, face up. “If you could please sir.”

“Of course.” He pulls reasonably quickly, offers a hand. “Now you Mitch.”

Trailing a heavy duty line Mitch gets in. “Okay. The connections to the blocks are with differing strand lengths. As you pull on this one they’ll go taught one after the other. It should let you pull the blocks out one by one. Take the line please.”

Leo motions to it. “You do it Akala.”

“Sure babes?”

“I’m sure.”

“Be ready to select a floor. As soon as he’s awake we go. Not before.” Kneeling on the coat she wraps the line around a hand and pulls.

The first two blocks come away easily. The third takes a bit more effort. Big Mitch drops onto the ring and his eight legs twitch.

Akala drops the line, shoves the coat back onto the deck with a foot. “Any second now..” Through a small gap in the web she watches Big Mitch wriggle to get off the blocks sending them tumbling, stand on his legs and start to turn around. “Go!”

Doing the last panel tap Leo pulls her backwards as Big Mitch races to the lift. The doors close just in time and there’s a loud thud as he hits the outer doors. “That was close!”

~~~

[Chapter-94](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-94-1)


	93. Chapter 93

[Chapter-95](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-95-1)


	94. Chapter 94

Sunrise watches Nepal attach the chain around her waist and clicks her thanks, places her hands on his cheeks and bumps foreheads. She gets a kiss in return. She liked this place a lot. Maybe these visitors from another world could make her a warm pool too? Her people had a mostly hard life with whatever moments of fun they could get. She looks over his shoulder as a big splash pulls in a cloud of bubbles. Big Mitch had entered the pool with a splash. She clicks a hello as he sinks towards the bottom of the shallow end.

Clicking back, his legs go out, feet ready to touch the bottom. “No water ingress so far. Let me see if the spinnerets will work under water.”

Nepal turns to watch. “I’ve been meaning to ask, how are you talking audibly now rather than bumping?”

“Aha! Our palps would carry sperm if we were real spiders. We’d thought them useless, purely for decoration or anatomical correctness. One of my broach brothers discovered that if we vibrate them fast enough they make sound. Not at great volumes it must be said, but sound none the less. It feels like things are working, are they?”

Nepal nods. “A fine golden strand is sinking to the pool floor.”

“Great! It works! Could someone hold the ends please?” He stops making and steps forwards. “I’ll see if I can attach a new strand midway. If that works I can construct nets for Sunrise where they’re needed.”

“Nice!”

Fearless swims over to Big Mitch. “I’ll help!”

“Thank you miss.”

The girl frowns at him a little. “How do you know where the last strand is when you can’t see it?”

“I feel for it with my hind feet. And I can feel pressure on my spinnerets. I can do things in the dark just like you. Including making webs.”

~~~

[Chapter-96](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-96-1)


	95. Chapter 95

Up on Deck 13 the original Big Mitch was furious. The intruder had caused him to power back up. Somehow they’d escaped. A line of strong nylon snaked across the floor into the tiny gap between lift doors. Checking one particular box he’d found a favourite shiny thing missing. They must have taken it. Stepping down and backwards he unknowingly kicks the ring he was looking for under the box behind. The male imposter he’d chased looked like the one in the photos Mattie had shown him decades ago. Maybe aliens had managed to clone someone from DNA after all? Even if it looked like her Leo it couldn’t be him. Not after so many years. He must have left in a hurry, under the bottom of the web. Leaving so fast he’d left the lights on. Mattie may have been suffering from bouts of forgetfulness with her age, but he didn’t. She didn’t want things taken from this deck, especially her jewellery. “Guard Mitch to Ship. Are we in orbit yet?”

“Hello Mitch, you’re awake again then? We are indeed in orbit.”

~~~

[Chapter-97](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-97-1)


	96. Chapter 96

Zero frowns at Veronica. ‘Sorry?’

‘Mitch on deck thirteen is awake.’

‘What do you mean he’s awake?’

‘Awake, charged, active, sentient, functioning..’

‘I know what awake is. What’s he doing there? Nobody was supposed to go on that floor.’

‘Guarding.’

‘That’s alright then.’

‘It is?’

‘Sure. How many mutations has synth Sunrise done now?’

‘A little under half a million.’

Zero’s eyebrows shoot up. ‘Frigging hell that’s a lot!’ “Mattie, her boot code’s done almost half a million mutations already.”

“That many? That doesn’t sound right. Unless the clock speed of CPU zero in current builds is way faster than older models.”

“And if it’s not?” Zero looks to the laptop, the weird half Mitch-pad monochrome system with faster screen refresh rates. “Could the mutation be running and immediately exiting, not trying to load the code?”

“Frig. I hope not. Um.. I could add more stats, record the time the mutation tries to load the consciousness and time it fails. If the delta’s too close to zero it’s not doing anything. What do you think?”

“I’m in agreement Mattie. We don’t want Nepal waiting decades for something that never stands a chance of working.” Sunrise’s body does a few violent shakes. “Frigging hell! What was that?”

Flash gets the synth back into her previous position. “Data trying to execute as code?”

Resting head on hand Mattie sighs. “Frigging hell. If random bits of memory just happen to have the right values to execute as code it could do all sorts of damage to the data. Shit. We need a change of plan. When the mutation fails the first half needs to copy the full backup back in from read only storage. Otherwise we’ve got no way of saying that what it’s trying to start is still valid. Fuck fuck fuck. That’s going to slow the mutation rate down to mutations per hour not second. Damnit! It could be millennia before she boots, assuming one day she does.”

Mitch strolls onto the deck, half of his legs tucked in tight, a thick strand around his abdomen being held by Akala. “I’m pretending to be a dog. What do you think? Woof woof! Akala showed me a video in the archives, a black dog in spider costume for Halloween. If a dog can pretend to be a giant spider, why not a spider being a dog?”

Mattie chuckles and gives him a clap. “Nice. Is four legs harder than eight?”

“It’s harder than six for sure. Six is easy, I do that web building. Why are you looking at me like that Zero, don’t you think it’s funny?”

“It’s not that. I thought you were guarding deck you know what?” ‘Thirteen.’

‘Thirteen?’

‘Veronica said you were guarding the deck.’

‘She did?’ Mitch shifts nervously.

‘Yes!’

‘I’m not. One moment.. oh hell!’

‘Mitch?’

‘The door to the stairwell is open!’

‘You left it open?’

‘Not me. Big Mitch. Original Big Mitch.’

‘Original?’ Zero frowns hard at him. ‘What original?’

‘The one told to guard her possessions and never ever let anyone off the deck with them! If I, the Big Mitch you know, is the nicest possible, he’s the exact opposite.’

‘And he’s left the deck?’

‘It looks that way!’

“Fuck! Don’t Panic everyone but I want you all down to the airlock deck pronto. Sunrise’s synth body’ll have to wait. Veronica, get bumping everyone the request. Not Big Mitch. Everyone’s to drop whatever they’re doing, their lives may depend on it!”

Flash feels oddly faint. She’d come to know that she’d died in some simulated worlds, didn’t fancy doing so here. Cheese sandwiches and grazed knees didn’t prepare you for this sort of thing. She looks at the large spider. “Why not Big Mitch Zero? I like him.”

“Not the fork you know, the original. Mattie, bump Tibet and Nepal, I want a MUS security detail guarding the doors pronto. With those new weapons if possible.”

“Okay. Anything else?” She slaps shut her MitchBook. “Who’s going to be on the bridge?”

“You and me.”

“And?”

“Just us two.”

“Sure that’s wise?”

“You’ll see Mattie.”

~~~

[Chapter-98](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-98-1)


	97. Chapter 97

[Chapter-99](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-99-1)


	98. Chapter 98

Astrid races into the medical bay and hits the control panel to close the doors. “Where’s Niska?”

George keeps his eyes on the microscope. “On her way, she’s persuaded Sophie to look after Fearless and Radiant.”

“Good. Zero wants everyone on the airlock deck.”

He adjusts the slide under the microscope. “I know. We have a few more minutes before anyone starts checking who’s there. Nice swimming costume.”

“Thank you George.”

“You came straight from the spa?”

“I did. You have eyes in the back of your head now?” She hooks thumbs into her bikini top and adjusts it.

“Please don’t do that. I spoke to Mitch a short while ago, asked if he knew what the issue was. He shared a tip. Plus I can hear you dripping water onto the floor. Bump Niska please, tell her to get her feet dry and put her hair in a top knot. She’s to come to the med bay from the other direction.”

“Why?”

“Apparently Root Big Mitch is out and pissed off.” He looks up at the wall in front of him, blinks a couple of times and looks back into the microscope. “Very pissed off and potentially deadly. We don’t want more wet footprints for him to follow here.”

“Scheisse.”

“Mitch says he was guarding things none of us were meant to know about. He came close to getting Leo.”

Astrid finds towels and dries her hair. “Is it working?”

“Yes.”

“Ausgezeichnet!” She does a little clap. “Well done George!”

“It’s early days. Don’t get too excited. We’re still a very long way away from getting a few viable cells to grow into a cute little Labrador puppy.”

Doing turn after turn Astrid sends water flying from her hair. “We need to thank Mia for the Paris Japonica. Without those plant cells we’d have nothing to splice DNA from.”

“We do. Did you bump Niska as I asked?”

“I did.”

“I’m not seeing her anywhere.” He takes the slide out from under the microscope and puts it in the sharps bin. “We should go.”

Astrid puts the towels away. “Not without Nis?”

“Niska should be here by now. She’s not. The lift is close, once in a lift we can be at the airlock deck in moments, have the protection of Nepal, Tibet and his brothers.”

“I’ve tried to bump again George, she’s off the network.”

“Even more reason to get going.” He gets to the door and closes eyes. “Still no sign of her. Don’t fall behind.” The doors are open a second later.

~~~

[Chapter-100](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-100-1)


	99. Chapter 99

Fearless runs in front of old MUS James Ten and faces the lift. “Grarrrrr!” Defiance shown she races back to Radiant and Sophie. “See.”

Sophie grabs her and pulls her into the cuddle with Radiant. “Thank you for offering to be the second line of defence Fee, hopefully it won’t come to that, please stay here as asked. Are you okay Radiant?”

“I want my mummies.”

“I know.”

“My name is Radiant Kiss. Do you know that’s my mummies names letters all jumbled up and rearranged? R is from Astrid, a is from Niska, d is from Astrid, i is from..”

Fee pushes her sister. “We know!”

“Hey!” Sophie hugs them both tighter. “Fee calm down. Radiant’s only taking her mind off the situation. You might be fearless by name and nature but we’re not, okay? You both have characteristics from both of your parents. Although you Fee definitely got a bit more Niska and Radiant a lot more Astrid.”

Fee wriggles to get free. “A bit?” A _lot_. Radiant is soft.”

“That’s not a bad thing Fee. Soft and gentle are good qualities.”

“Let go!” Fee wriggles harder.

“You’re not afraid of the Big Bad Mitch? Not even a little Fee?”

“You heard normal Mitch. He had to guard original Mattie’s things. He was just following her orders.”

“Hmm.”

~~~

[Chapter-101](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-101-1)


	100. Chapter 100

On the bridge Mattie faces the lift but stands well back as asked. “Now what?” She gets a bump from Sophie. “Hang on a sec.” ‘Soph? Can it wait a moment, Zero wants to show me something.’

‘Is Bad Mitch really bad or just obediently following his programming and instructions?’

‘Pass.’

‘Only Fee thinks he’s being good, we’re misinterpreting his actions.’

‘She would! Just hang tight, we’ll have this sorted soon.’

‘How Mattie?’

‘I might find out in a moment if you let me.’

‘Sorry, I thought you could multitask.’

‘I can Soph, I just want to be distraction free.’

‘Sorry. Bump when free.’

‘Thanks Soph.’ Mattie smiles. “Sorry. I’m all yours.”

Zero clicks her fingers. Milliseconds later a curved Plexiglass wall surrounds the lift entrance. “Neat huh?”

“ _Holy frigging fuck!_ How fast did that move? My ears are ringing.”

“Fast.” Zero knocks on it with her knuckles. “Five inches thick, hardened, bullet proof for long enough to see who’s in the lift. If they’re not wanted they’re flushed into space.”

“I’ve just replayed what I’d seen in slow motion. So that’s what the lines in the floor were. The edges of the wall.”

“Yup. You’re the only one I trust to know about it. Apart from VS, she knows everything.”

Mattie gets to the wall and feels it. “VS?”

“Veronica Ship. Who did you think I meant, Victoria’s Secret?”

Mattie grins a little. “Well you did have a fork running around being a slightly plus sized model in one world, Leo found it and got a few ideas. He said she was extremely body confident.”

“Aren’t you? We’re frigging gorgeous.”

“Not in Sandra’s league.”

“Sod Sandra, she’s based on a soft porn mag model George clapped eyes on when he got a magazine accidentally delivered by the paperboy. Put us in nice light with flattering poses, photograph us well and we’re equally as hot.”

“Yeah, right. So is the wall staying up?”

“No. Stand back.” Zero waits for Mattie to move and clicks again. “You sound unconvinced. We’ll get you and Emily to a nice location once Mitch has checked out the planet a bit. We’ve seen some small secluded coves in the ship’s camera views.”

“Thanks, but that’s not necessary.”

“Sure it is. You, Scarlet, Mats, you’re all part of a whole. Me included. You do understand that don’t you?”

“Yeah but..”

“Not buts. I’m going to be doing it for Scarlet and Mats, can’t exclude you Mattie. Did you ever go on ghost walks with Leo in the simulations?”

“No?”

Zero smiles. “We’ve got the rest of London Mat’s Pyramid inhabitants on the list to build, the site will be empty when they’re here. You should visit and have a go on her emergency exit rope. It’s fun.”

“I’ve heard all about it, no thanks.”

“Not into heights?”

“Nope.” A beeping starts. “What’s that?”

Walking to a monitor Zero checks. “With everyone on the airlock deck I programmed the lift system to bring any one or anything using one here instead of their intended destination.”

A horrified expression couldn’t be suppressed. “Frigging hell Z! You’ve got the nasty Big Mitch coming to the bridge?”

“Yup. I want to talk to him. But not as this me. As Matilda Elizabeth Elster-Hawkins. Step over here please.” She heads to the other side of the room. “You’ve never seen my private captain’s quarters have you?”

“Your what?”

Zero pushes on a wall. It moves in a little then sideways out of the way. “This room.”

With eyes and mouth wide open Mattie enters. “What the fuck! Please tell me that’s not what I think it is.”

“Ted? Yup, that’s the foul mouthed fucker. Mr Patches is in the draw. He had a nasty accident and ripped an arm off. They were only toys, not built to last like us.”

Mattie’s mind is flooded with all sorts of conflicting memories. “Frig. Which wedding was my true wedding?”

“Our wedding. All of them. She renewed her vows with Leo on a yearly basis for a while. We were so in love. We, she, you, us, all the same. It was partly that and it was a good excuse to leave the country and spend time with Mia. After her death on camera we couldn’t have her return to the UK. The UK was still united when she died, but not for long.”

“Death?”

“The first of many resurrections.” She hears more beeping. “Quiet please, lift approaching.” The wall door is closed. Their side becomes a high resolution video panel like their main bridge screen making it appear as if the wall had just gone transparent.

‘Whoa! Nice!’

‘Thanks. I did insist on a few features.’ Zero watches the lift doors open. It appears empty. ‘Where’s Mitch?’

‘Not in there unless..’ A foot comes into view at the top of the lift doorway. ‘He’s on the ceiling!’

‘I’ve seen it. Come on, out you get. Don’t say a word Mattie, just watch.’ Zero sits on her bed and flops back.

Via the video wall Mattie sees the main bridge wall change. An elderly person appears to walk on screen and looks to talk. Frigging hell! It was old Matilda! She looks over and watches Big Mitch slowly lower himself on a thin strand of web and get to the floor. Detached a moment later he enters the bridge and turns, steps closer to the image of Matilda talking. What the frig was she saying? The fact Zero had gone limp on the bed meant she was the one doing the talking, linked into a Tree of Life like virtual world, the screen rendering an image of her a avatar for others to see. It wasn’t clear if Big Mitch was liking it or not. He was pacing back and forth, stopping to look at the screen only now and then. He stops as the lift doors close, waits a second then resumes his pacing. The lift doors open again. A bikini clad Astrid steps out with George. Mattie puts palms to the wall. “No! Astrid no!” She watches Astrid look in Mitch’s direction and scream.

~~~

[Chapter-102](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-102-1)


	101. Chapter 101

George grabs Astrid by the hips and pulls her back towards the lift just as the doors close behind them. Moments later the wall shield goes up with a bang. “My ears! At least we finally get to see the true face of our maker.”

“Was? I mean what?”

He nods at the wall. “God made man, man made machines, man destroys world, woman leaves and becomes god, remakes machines and man. That’s Earth President Matilda. The eyes haven’t changed.” The lift bings again and he goes to enter, has Niska step out instead. “There you are. Were’d you get to?”

“That’s not important right now. So that’s Bad Mitch. He doesn’t look any different to good Mitch, apart from the pattern he’s selected.”

Astrid steps backward into the lift. “Coming?”

Niska shakes her head. “This glass wall, it reminds me of when you found out what I truly was.”

“That I loved you for being you.”

Mitch races over and starts attacking the glass.

Niska crouches. “Yes. Maybe he’s in need of some love? From what Mitch said he’s been stuck on the ship all alone for hundreds of years with nothing but his own company.”

Taking her hand George pulls her part way up. “We should go. If that wall can go up it can also come down.”

“No. I’m staying. I came late as I was doing a backup update, taking over from Red. Worst case he ends me and you do another build. If I can get through to him we both get out okay. Go!”

“Niska!” Astrid grabs her other hand and almost pulls her over.

“Astrid, please don’t! We’re trying to protect what little life there is in the universe and bring some back. We’d be as hypocritical as those we fought on Earth if we just destroyed him. Go.”

“I’m not going without you!”

“Then stay.”

George steps into the lift, swears under his breath then steps back out. “You can’t be the fab three with only two. If you’re staying so am I.”

~~~

[Chapter-103](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-103-1)


	102. Chapter 102

[Chapter-104](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-104-1)


	103. Chapter 103

Mattie paces back and forth, never once taking her eyes off the wall. It felt like Zero had made her an unwilling witness in a horror movie. Whatever her old character was saying on the bridge display Mitch was totally ignoring it. She wanted to get out but the only way looked to be back into the bridge with the enraged spider. If she could get out of this tiny side room. It sure looked like a big if, she had no idea how to open the wall back up. To make matters worse the room was a dead zone, no radio signals were getting in or out. She’d bumped directly to Zero earlier with the proximity, the captain was now unresponsive to anything done.

The parallels gave her goose bumps, if it was another lock in test it was a shit one. Her first had been with Leo, Zero and the smaller cocooned Mitch after he’d got mad at Zero, locked the door and changed all the ship’s WiFi passwords. They’d been the only four known to be onboard apart from the battery knackered James MUS. Her solution had been grim, Leo rebooting Mitch with both her and Zero dead on the floor to trick him into letting Leo out. They’d not played dead, they’d fought to the death. Leo’d got them built again, restored from the very recent data in the build machines. Both were thankful that neither knew how bad the fighting had got.

No passwords had been changed this time, the room had blocked WiFi instead. Leo was absent and this Mitch was huge. More pissed off too.

Watching the lips move on the face of old Matilda on the main screen and Mitch’s movements a horrible thought struck her. Zero was egging him on, driving him madder and madder as every second passed! If she dropped the wall between Mitch and the lift there’d be a bloodbath. Synth fluid bath. Whatever. Carnage.

She needed to do something, but what? Super minimalistic didn’t come close to describing how empty and bland the small room was. Maybe that’s why it had its own video wall. Not to enable the watching of the bridge specifically but instead reduce the feeling of claustrophobia. Everything was part of a continuous plastic moulding like the inside of an aircraft restroom or shower room in university digs. The one draw was an insert into a continuation of the end of the bed that formed a small table. What would Zero do if roles were reversed?

She stares at the teddy bear sat motionless at the head of the bead. Had Zero, she corrects herself, Matilda, cuddled him while waiting for sleep to take her on what must have felt like endless nights? Night after night she’d probably cried herself to sleep, heartbroken at the loss of her husband and family, compounded by the thought that nobody else had made it to the ship. If it had been awake at some point it might know how to open the door. “Okay Ted, time to spill the beans.” Grabbing him by the arm she turns him over and pokes him in the arse. There’s the tactile click of a button but no sign of life. “Frig. Expecting a working battery after six hundred plus years was a bit much Mattie.”

“Hello?”

She turns the bear right way up. “Hello?”

“Matilda?”

Either the bear was an expert ventriloquist even when off or it was something else. Mr Patches. Ted put back on the bed she pulls the draw open. “Hiya!”

Mr Patches slowly moves his one good forearm. “Hello!”

She reaches for him. “Sophie will love..”

“ _Don’t touch me!_ ”

She yanks her hand back as if he were a snake ready to strike. “Why?”

“What you said to Ted. My battery is dead. I’m resting on paperclips stuck into the draw’s built in communicator charger. If you move me I’m dead!”

“Frig. Do you know how the door opens?”

“Door?”

She looks around then back at Patches. “We’re in the Captain’s side room off the bridge.”

“You mean the wall?”

“Um, yeah, the wall. How’s it open?”

“You just say the words. Open up you frigging stupid wall! She had a funny sense of humour.”

“Oh shit!” She spins around to see it sliding sideways. “Shit shit shit! Close it!”

“I don’t know how.”

~~~

[Chapter-105](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-105-1)


	104. Chapter 104

George watches the wall finish opening up on the far side of the bridge, a horrified Mattie looking towards them like a rabbit caught in headlights. “Ladies, bang on the glass, keep moving about, keep Mitch focused on us. Whatever you do don’t stop to look at Mattie.”

Niska bangs hard. “Mattie? Oh God!”

George starts banging on the glass too, uncertain if their actions could be heard or not. ‘Mattie get the wall closed!’

‘I don’t know how!’

‘Is that Zero on the bed?’

‘Yes, she’s got to be running the avatar on the screen, she’s not responding to anything I do.’

‘One moment!’ He bumps to Mitch down on the airlock deck, keeps banging. ‘Mitch says he thinks she’s trying to get him to run his battery down.’

‘Does he know how to close the wall?’

‘Asking.. yes. Hold tight.’ The wall starts closing. ‘I’ll ask him to open it back up when..’ There’s a loud bang as the glass wall vanishes back into the floor.

Mattie screams as Big Mitch, who had been at forty five degrees, half supported by the wall, falls forwards onto Niska.

~~~

[Chapter-106](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-106-1)


	105. Chapter 105

[Chapter-107](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-107-1)


	106. Chapter 106

Sophie stops playing pat-a-cake with Qi and looks up to see who was coming out of the lift. It was like a scene from a horror film. A carpet of black was coming out at all sides of the door and covering the wall and floor. She instinctively grabs Fee. “What’s the hell’s that!”

A strangely distorted but familiar voice answers. “Hello Sophie! It’s me, Clutter Mitch. I’m not sure who got all the build machines going, maybe they did too many by accident? Two million bodies is a lot!” The sea of tiny spider bodies starts to track along the floor. “Who started the build? I must have been forked for a reason.” It rises at the front, spider supporting spider. “Is anyone cold? I could pretend to be a cape.”

Fearless races forwards. “Me!” She dodges a James MUS reaching for her and runs backwards, arms out. She’s enveloped in black. “That tickles!”

Clutter Mitch moves to reveal her face and hands. “How do I look Fearless?”

She checks her arms. “Lovely!”

“Good. Mitch, why am I here?”

“Hi Clutter. Gemma Price left a device hidden in a wall panel. We need to know there aren’t any more. You’re not a fork of you from a short while ago?”

“The last thing I remember is making shapes for people to guess at a party for the kids. I’ve arranged myself into smaller subgroups of one thousand and twenty four, they have a nominated talker to the other groups. My distributed thinking is so much faster and clearer! Where should I start?”

“Wherever you like. We’ve been focusing on the wall panels near doorways. She used a simple vampire tap to get power from cables, may have batteries in other places.”

“You need the whole ship checked?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. We’ll check all power cables first. Sorry Fearless, I have to go to work. We can play later if you’d like?”

The girl lets her shoulders drop. “Okay. Later today or later never?”

“Later when the job is done. Maybe you could help, keep me company, keep a log of everywhere I check?”

“If my mummies let me, they’re missing, not answering.”

Mitch weaves through the crowd. “They were on the bridge with Mattie, Zero, Old George and Big Mitch. Sorry, I’m only getting answers from George.”

Fearless bumps. “George says he’s very busy, not to go to the bridge.” Tears roll.

~~~

[Chapter-108](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-108-1)


	107. Chapter 107

George felt numb. It was to be expected, he’d turned all pain sensors off in readiness for the attack. Getting out intact hadn’t been the expected outcome. He’d made a promise to Zero as was going to keep it, even if it meant risking taking his power level to a dangerous consciousness corrupting low. He’s been pushing things a bit today, hadn’t sleep charged or drank enough sugoffee. Sugar rations had been imposed a week ago, people preferring to drink the sugary weak coffee mix on the go rather than charge. Just like the hybrid car owners of the 21st century getting their TAX breaks and filling their cars with petrol, never plugging in. There’d been quite a few documentary videos in the ships archives, people with their heads in the sand or up their arses carrying on as if the world wasn’t hurting. Any intelligent scientist, trained in ecology or not, could see the signs. Earth had gotten very ill and in the final months bitten humanity hard.

He picks up the box he’d just emptied onto the deck and places it on top of another, rotated forty five degrees so the corners sat on the edges of the one below for stability. Things were being sorted into categories, the boxes more sensibly packed to use the space optimally, not have random things dropped in higgledy-piggledy and wasting space. He smiles at the thought. That had been one of Mary’s favourite sayings when moving piles of random unopened post. Higgledy-piggledy.

Looking at the pile of things on the floor he picks up two hardback books. One was a Harry Potter novel, the other a crime story by James Patterson. They’re dropped into the box with other books. Next he grabs a small white cardboard box and shakes it. Definitely paperclips. It’s added to the office supplies box. The next thirty items are checked and stored in a similar way.

Floor cleared again he picks up the next full box and takes it to his sorting space, lowers it to the floor and takes a long coat off the top. “You beauty!” Reaching in he turns senses on again. “Not ice cold, but cold enough!” There’s a crack and fizzing noise. “Not flat either!” He felt a little guilty drinking the now vintage sugar loaded red can of Coke but what the hell, he had a job to get done. Pulling things out he finds another two. He was tempted, would consume them only as a last resort. The micro incinerators in his food processor were already at work boiling the liquid and burning the sugar content. Energy levels were slowly creeping back up. He grins to himself. “There’s nothing quite like a sugar rush!”

Contents sorted he places the box to the end of the row and goes to get another. “Gotcha!”

~~~

[Chapter-109](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-109-1)


	108. Chapter 108

Danny got a bag of tools together, grabbing anything and everything that might come in handy from his workspace in his father’s shipping container. He wasn’t comfortable with the request, synth surgery was more Fred’s expertise. He’d had an urgent request from Niska via Mattie saying the damage was bad, he should be prepared to work for a couple of hours, take things slowly and carefully. It was now safe to come to the bridge, he should get there immediately. That troubled him. If her damage was extensive maybe she’d been unable to use the WiFi or emergency socket, unable to update her backup. If her hip had been somehow broken, destroying the sockets, it was a job for Fred or Freddie, not him. That said he was the resident electronics guru, more experienced in hacking circuits together than David or George. A synth skull was incredibly strong, way stronger than a humans. With enough pressure in a small spot it would buckle. Maybe her cores were damaged, the WiFi chip now dead. He grabs a plastic draw of single board computers just in case and steps into the light of the deck. “See you in a bit Emily.”

“Let us know how she is babes.”

“Will do Princess.” He walks fast to the lift, smiles at the James MUS he passes. “At ease lads. Mattie says the problem is over.”

James Ten keeps his eyes on the lift. “Sorry if I ignore that, I want to hear that from Zero herself.”

“Suit yourself mate, I’m sure we’ll hear from her soon.” He runs a finger down the small panel holding the call button. “What’s the lift G record so far?”

“Twenty one.”

“Thanks.” Inside he pulls the zip on the bag tight, puts arms through the handles and wears it against his chest like a back to front rucksack. ‘Leo, I feel the need for speed. What code do I use to go full speed?’ He gets a dump of instructions. ‘Thanks mate!’ Override typed in he gets into the corner, grabs the handrail tight and braces. “Feet don’t fail me now!”

~~~

[Chapter-110](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-110-1)


	109. Chapter 109

Cluster Mitch makes a stack of bodies and gets them all to stand a little, the top layers pulling on the head of a pin in a power line. “Yes! I did it! I actually did it! It’s like my bodies are little muscle cells all working together!”

Fearless claps. “Well done CM! I knew you could if you put your mind to it!”

“That’s the thing! With more bodies I can think better! Faster and clearer. Is that what humans really were, a mass of individual cells all working together?”

“So the archives say CM. Teamwork on a massive scale. Unless some were cancer cells, they were the baddies. How’s your power?”

“Good enough to pull the other pin, drag this cable and the thing out. It’s only connected to power and a little dangly thing, nothing glued to the wall.”

“Okay.” She makes a mental note. “This is fun. I’ve never had an important job before.”

“We make a good team. Pin pulled. Here it comes, stand back Fearless.”

“It’s okay CM, I like the tickles.” A tear builds. “They remind me of Mummy Niska. She’d tickle me and Radiant at bedtime.”

“Danny will get her fixed, maybe with some help from Fred and Freddie. Don’t hold back, I know you’re fearless but it’s okay to show emotions.”

“I’m not crying.”

“It’s okay, I won’t tell. Team mates have each other’s backs.” Thousands of little spiders exit through the open panel and form the shape of an arm, a hand, a finger. A cluster of spiders at the tip catch the tear as it rolls. “It’s okay.”

“Cuddle!”

~~~

[Chapter-111](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-111-1)


	110. Chapter 110

[Chapter-112](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-112-1)


	111. Chapter 111

Danny waits a moment for things to settle before attempting any movement. The g-force induced cankles had faded, his core temperature spike gone. A new record. Not one he’d ever try to top. He’s always liked speed, that had been ridiculous. His hands had grown at least four glove sizes with the acceleration. His feet would have swollen a lot too if it wasn’t for the good shoes Production Alfie had printed. “Hi Mattie. Where’s the patient?”

“Captain’s ready room with Zero.” She steps to the wall and pushes. “Take your time Dan.”

“Sure.” He watches the wall slide back, sees Zero, Astrid and Niska sat on the bed, his view of Niska obscured by the other two. “Sure the medical bay wouldn’t be a better place?”

Zero gets up. “Thanks for coming. We can’t go there without certain death.”

Tool bag placed on the floor he sits and goes to feel the back of Niska’s head, has her move away, a confused look on her face. “Where’s the damage?”

“I’m fine Danny. I’m not the one you need to fix.”

“Oh. I though your message..”

“Was to get you up here fast. The patient is in the draw.”

“Draw?”

Zero pulls it slowly open. “Mr Patches. He needs the equivalent of open heart surgery to get a new power feed so his battery can be replaced.”

“Patches! Hello buddy! Remember me?”

“Of course I do Danny, you made me. Ted and I came up with one of the cargo shipments for Sophie.”

“What happened to your arm?”

“I was trying to get along a corridor, the door sensor didn’t see me and it got crushed.”

“Ouch!” Danny gets his bag and unzips it. “I’m not the Danny that made you, I’m a synth with Danny’s mind loaded. I’ve been in one of the world simulations Zero made, things were altered. Can you connect to WiFi and run a backup?”

“I don’t have WiFi.”

“Oh. We’ll fix that. How are you getting power? I need all the details, don’t skip anything, no matter how small or insignificant they might feel.”

“Matilda, Mattie, has a communicator, a charger for it is built into the draw. I pushed it off and got paperclips into the contacts, lay on top with the ends touching the power input on my back.”

“So it’s just your weight keeping you there?”

“Yes.”

“Hmm. How do you feel? Okay with spiders buddy?”

“I don’t feel and I don’t know what a spider is.”

Danny looks over to the ladies. “I need a small Broach Mitch with plastic in his belly, something that will shrink a little when it cools. I want him to cover him in web that will hold him to the charge base so I can operate.”

Zero nods. “Just the one? We have a few.”

“If you can get more that would be great.”

She touches the wall screen. “Zero to everyone onboard. If you’re wearing a Broach Mitch and know he’s been eating plastic recently please make your way to the bridge. Zero out.”

“Okay buddy, we have a plan. Did I put your schematics in your file system?”

Patches blinks. “You did. But I have no Wifi and my USB port is on my back. You can’t connect to get it without me moving.”

“No need buddy, we have all the IO methods we need.”

“We do?”

“You’re using one now. Do you know what I mean by a hexadecimal dump?”

“No?”

“Then I’ll teach you. You can then tell me the content of the files byte by byte.”

“That will take a long time!”

“Buddy how long have you been in that draw?”

“Over six hundred and..”

“Forever. Even if it takes me weeks we’ll get you out of here, okay?”

“Thank you Danny!”

He smiles. “My first AI. I’m not letting you down buddy. Keep perfectly still, I can hear the lift opening.” He turns to see Judge Laura. “Thanks for coming.”

“Anything to help.” She holds out a hand as her silver Broach Mitch runs down her arm. “What’s he needed for?”

“To make a blanket web to hold Patches in place while I operate. He mustn’t move at all.”

She frowns, moves to look in the draw. “Oh! The poor thing. Sophie’s Mister Patches. Hello dear.”

Broach Mitch jumps to the edge of the draw. “Danny, can Mario get me a charge base, some of Alfie’s flexible shoe filament? And ask Alfie to build me a bridge printed fast in draft mode, I’ll bump the shape. I’ll anchor on one side, use the bridge to get up and over the subject without touching him, move sideways and anchor on the other side.”

“Request made.”

~~~

[Chapter-113](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-113-1)


	112. Chapter 112

Veronica grabs Ruby. “She’s awake!”

“Who she?”

“Sunrise. Synth Sunrise!”

“I thought.. didn’t Mattie say she was powered down when they left the room?”

“She’s been powered back up!”

Ruby power walks towards the lift. ‘Mattie, did you power Sunrise back up?’

‘Hi Ruby. I didn’t, I’m on the bridge with Zero. Why?’

‘Veronica says she’s awake.’

‘Frigging hell! I’ll see you there!’

‘Okay.’ She smacks the lift call button. Steps inside a second later, turns to touch the panel and sees Veronica’s hand on it. “You don’t need to touch it, you could do it with a thought.”

“So could you Ruby, if you wanted to. You like doing things like the human you once were. As do I. Tactile feedback gives satisfaction does it not?”

“Yes, yes it does.” Ruby thinks of her man John and feels the ruby pendant nestled in her cleavage, her gift from him. “A lot.” Stepping back as the doors close and lift accelerates away she smiles. “How’s things with you and George?”

Veronica leans against the lift, holds onto the handrail and smiles back. “Good thank you Ruby. Some of the others have been talking about going down to the surface for a swim in the sea. I’d like to experience it, sadly I can’t risk it. Everything else I can do here is fabulous.”

“Why can’t you?”

“If my link to the ship were to be disrupted..”

“Oh. Right. Can’t you fork?”

“I wouldn’t fit. There’s no Veronica without Ship.”

“Really? You don’t need to be a walking encyclopaedia. We all know a lot of things but not everything. We look things up when we need them. You could do the same, work out what to take with you, what to leave for your return. It would be like packing for a holiday, then unpacking afterwards and putting things away. Only memories not clothes.”

“I think I understand you. Not forking like Mattie, temporarily detaching and reattaching.”

“That’s it.” The doors open and Ruby follows her out. “Like a maintenance mode, looking after your mental wellness. You may have started as pure code many many years ago..”

“Centuries ago.”

“.. but we’ve all evolved. You have every right to have as much fun as the rest of us.” She links arms in a friendly way. Ruby wasn’t daft. Veronica _was_ the ship. Without her everything would fall apart or stop. It was all control or fly by wire here. You might push a button to start a process, but almost every one had her behind it powering up or down electronics of one form or another. When getting a sugoffee for example. The machine that ground and roasted the coffee beans loaded from the liquid nitrogen freezer, that was her. The pumps that kept the water pressure up, that was her too. “Have you had a swim in the spa yet?”

“I went skinny dipping with George.”

“Good for you! How did you find it?”

“Warm.”

They get to the room and find the door open, Mattie, George, Big Mitch and Queen Sunrise inside.

George looks up. “Hello ladies.”

Frowning at her sister Ruby mouths the word How?

“Ruby, meet Root Big Mitch. You’ll see he’s guarding Matilda’s most precious of possessions for her still.”

Ruby looks at the oversized spider and sees a ring on a foot. “Hi Mitch. That’s a nice ring.”

“Matilda’s most prized possession. Not in monetary terms, but sentimental value. She and Leo got a matching pair on their honeymoon.”

“How is Sunrise awake?”

He turns a little. “The sleeping Queen? I woke her with a bite.”

“A bite?” Ruby’s face spoke confusion in the extreme.

“I can’t kiss. It had to be gentle, but perfectly timed to coincide with her consciousness booting. Sensory input to focus a waking mind. It didn’t work first time. The second time it did.”

Running a hand over the overside spider Sunrise smiles. “My second saviour.”

Mattie nods. “That was the key, not mutations of the boot loader, fancy code, spending hours over engineering a solution. Sharp input that focuses the mind as it comes into the world. Like a baby taking a first painful breath. Frigging awesome. Thanks Mitch.”

“You’re welcome. Is Niska okay?”

“Nothing a few skin packs won’t fix.”

Mitch hangs his chelicerae in shame. “I’m sorry.”

Looking from face to face Ruby looks for clues, someone’s face would move surely? No? “What happened to Niska Mitch?”

“I attacked her.”

“Why?”

“Matilda was telling me she was still on the ship. I didn’t believe her. Too much time has passed. The lady calling herself Astrid said she was still here, had spent years in a hibernation pod, was weak but now awake, talking to me via a consciousness link and would want to say a proper goodbye. Matilda said I shouldn’t be upset, she lives on in her quintuplet daughters Zero, Mattie, Mats, Ruby and Scarlet, the link machine helped create them.”

Ruby nods, the dangerous game now understood. “It did indeed.”

Patting the spider Mattie nods. “She’s a very smart woman. You should sleep charge for a bit Mitch, you’ll want to have a good charge.”

“I will.”

~~~

[Chapter-114](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-114-1)


	113. Chapter 113

Down at the workshop container Frank hands Dozer more lengths of shipping crate wood. “Did Niska say why?”

“No Boss. Astrid neither. Niska had one of those faces. The _don’t ask any questions_ sort of faces.”

“I’ve seen it, I passed them in the corridor. Niska’s got some nasty defensive wounds.”

“That’s an understatement.” Dozer places the wood in a vertical bath made from parts salvaged from Elon’s Dragon spacecraft, the thing that had been jammed in the outer airlock door so many months ago. “That should do it.” Top screwed on he checks the temperature gauge and sets a dial. “Ninety degrees at two hundred PSI for an hour. That should get it nice and pliable. I’ve not seen a boat design like it before Boss.”

“An Irish Curach? I took Barbara out in one on our second date. My grandfather on my mother’s side used to make them. Great little boats. Back then it was a wooden frame with animal skins stretched over, thin lengths of wood and plenty nails will do just as well.”

~~~

[Chapter-115](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-115-1)


	114. Chapter 114

In the bedroom, MitchBook opened, Mattie gets to work on a second revision of some new code. Ruby had told her about the conversation she’d had in the lift with VS. Veronica Ship was fully aware of what had happened on the bridge with Big Mitch, had spoken with her and Zero at length about it and something else on her mind. It was quite understandable, who’d want to be stuck on the ship for eternity? Coding old school was fun. She could close her eyes and just think code if she wanted, this was more tactile. All of them had agreed that the sense of touch made things special. “Leo, do you mind me calling you Bunny when we’re alone together?”

Leo flops back onto the pillows, puts his hands behind his head and gazes at the ceiling. “Not if I can call you Angel.”

“Thanks.”

“How’s the coding coming on?”

“Good.” She looks up. “I can almost read your face like a book. What’s running through your head?”

“Millions of thoughts. Searching for the best moments.”

Fingers frozen she gives him a head tilt. “Of?”

“You. My Angel. You have some beautiful expressions when you’re mind’s on other things and you’re not deliberately doing a resting bitch face for Toby or..” He catches a seat cushion she’d hurled at speed. “.. me when I’ve done something stupid like say you have a resting bitch face.”

“Lol. You’re not afraid to speak your mind, or admit when you’ve cocked up, I like that.” MitchBook put carefully on the floor she gets on the bed, walks on knees and straddles him. “You’re looking for memories of me?”

“Portraits for our new Mitch Canvas. George says it should be ready in an hour, he’s got one for every occupied bedroom being built plus a few spares.”

“Zero wants to take me on a photoshoot with Emily. I didn’t think it was my thing, but if you’d like some images..” She leans forwards and lets her hair form a curtain around both of their faces, plants a kiss on his lips.

“What sort of photos? I wouldn’t mind some of us both, strolling on the beach, sitting together in the surf, things like that. We can have so many of each other on our own if we do them, images with us together needs someone else.”

Mattie rewards his request with a warm kiss. “I’d like that very much.” There’s a soft knock on the door. “Urrgh! I swear the universe interrupts us on purpose. COMING!” Off the bed fast she flicks her hair back, pulls open the door and screams.

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to frighten you! It’s me, Clutter.”

Fearless steps around him. “He’s Spiderman!”

“Frigging hell Fee! Did you give him the idea?”

“No! He.. he worked it out himself when I asked for a cuddle.”

“A cuddle?”

“Mummy and Mummy were missing.”

“Oh, right. They’re both okay, were busy. What can I do for you both?”

Fee points down the corridor. “We wondered what you wanted done with those?”

Mattie frowns, leans forwards to look into the corridor. “Frigging hell’s bells! Leo, come see this!”

“Okay?”

Fearless steps back with her spider friend. “This is from just two levels.”

Mattie’s eyes go wide. “Two! Jesus, she must have bugged the entire ship!”

“We’ll be busy for days. I need to go sleep charge. Sophie says I have to go to bed.”

“I should too. It’s been a long one.”

Leo steps into the corridor, seemingly undisturbed by Clutter Mitch. “That came from only two levels? Wow. If you could get them to Frank’s container, Danny or Mario might be able to repurpose them.”

Shaking her head Mattie disagrees. “We should examine the code on them first, see what she was up to.”

Fearless looks at the pile. “And if one is a trojan? A virus to start things all over again?”

“Good point! They’re to be crushed and fed into the recycling then.”

Leo steps backwards into the room a few feet. ‘Sunrise approaching extremely fast. Synth version.’

Looking down the corridor Mattie waves. “Hiya, everything okay?”

“My daughter is upset, doesn’t want original me to stop living. I believe you call creating a duplicate self forking?”

“We do. It’s totally up to you. If that’s what the three of you want it’s fine with us. Isn’t it Leo.”

Back in the corridor he nods. “Totally fine. How are you finding the new body?”

“Strange. I have a desire to breathe water even though it is now unnecessary. My mind is faster, I can do things once and recall them perfectly. And every conversation I have builds on my understanding of your language. I will tell Sunbeam and I the good news. They will be most happy.”

“Good. Where are they?”

“Back in the spa pool with Sophie and the other children. This man of black, who is he?”

Clutter Mitch slowly waves. “Micro Spider Mitch your highness. I too can think faster.”

She gets her face within millimetres. “You are a community of spiders?”

“I am. All working together. I can become a chair or rock if you’d like to sit?”

The Queen does a long series of rapid clicks. “How wonderful! Don’t the bodies at the bottom get crushed?”

“Ah, that’s where talking to Production Alfie came in handy. I’m more hollow the higher I go. There’s more of me at the bottom than at the top.”

Mattie snorts. “Sorry. Back when we were kids _not much up top_ meant something quite different. We should all get some sleep. Sunrise and Sunbeam too. Where would they sleep?”

The Queen smiles. “On the bottom of the spa pool.”

“We’ll see you in the morning then. Fee, Clutter, leave those there if you want, they’ll be fine until the morning.”

Mitch gets moving. “It’s okay, we can get them there can’t we Fee?” He morphs into an open box. “If you could load me up? Ten minutes and I need to go charge.”

Mattie watches Fee quickly drop the many bundles of cables in, the three of them head to the lift. ‘Watching Clutter do that has to be both the most simultaneously frightening and cool thing ever.’

‘I didn’t find him that frightening Angel.’

‘If I’d been a FAB, a flesh and bone human I’d have had a little pee.’

‘Lovely. They’re gone now.’

She nudges him sideways. ‘Fancy a nice warm shower with me then a cuddle sleep charge?’

‘I do.’

They’re both about to step back into their room when Danny exits the lift. “Hi, glad I caught you up. I need your thoughts on something Mattie.”

“What’s that?”

“Patches.” He reads their faces. “Can we talk first thing in the morning please Mattie?”

“Sure. Is he okay?”

“Stable.”

“Was it quick?”

“I’ve been able to teach him how to hexdump everything. We did a quick test to see he’s doing it right, he spoke the hexadecimal for a memory of you ladies looking at him in the draw. He’s talking his entire file system to Ship with your wall open, wants to know if he can have his arm fixed.”

“Sure, why not?”

“Mattie if I fix his arm it’ll be the strongest thing in his body. What’s to say he won’t break something else? Like his shoulder. I really think George should do a skeleton design for him, let us move his code into a new body. He says he doesn’t want to be in a new one, likes the one he has. Getting a new power feed in via his chest is going to be tricky. I was wondering if you could talk him round? A new build could have Wifi, wireless charging, all sorts of things to make his body better.”

“Maybe Sunrise would be better, she’s loving the new body. You just missed her, she’s heading back to the spa. Don’t keep her up.”

“Okay, let’s all talk in the morning. Goodnight.”

“Night Danny.”

~~~

[Chapter-116](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-116-1)


	115. Chapter 115

[Chapter-117](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-117-1)


	116. Chapter 116

One thing was different about Earth Two. A day lasted twenty seven hours, forty three minutes, seventeen seconds. Both David and George had agreed that eight hours sleep charge still was enough to cope with the average day. As everyone was still thinking in hours minutes and seconds that’s how it should stay.

Mattie thinks about the time, rolls and gets on top of Leo. “Morning handsome. Fancy doing something naughty before the rest of the..” There’s a knock on the door. “Oh for frig’s sake!”

Leo grabs her firmly by the bottom. “Pretend we’re still asleep. What did you have in mind?”

“A nice warm shower and a good soapy..” The knock is repeated. “Cover your ears Bunny.. WHO IS IT!”

‘It’s me Mummy. You let me have a sleepover with Qi, they’re all up and ready.’

‘Sorry Darling! Give Mummy one moment.’ She kisses Leo. “One day we’ll get some morning us time again.”

~~~

[Chapter-118](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-118-1)


	117. Chapter 117

Emily locks the bedroom door and gets in front of the full height mirror. Danny was still sleeping, would wake to find a note on her side of the bed asking him to say hello but stay there until she said it was okay to move. Taking a mirror selfie in the past had always resulted in a phone or camera being in the reflection, sometimes partially hiding part of herself. Not now. Pose struck she saves image0206.png. Dress straps carefully moved off her shoulders she lets it drop to the floor, stands slightly crouched with one arm over her breasts and a hand strategically placed further down to make it look like the dress had broken and caught her off guard with no underwear on. Adjusting depth of field to throw everything in the foreground and background further out of focus she saves the view as image0207.png. Sweet! Being your own model, photographer and camera like this was super cool. A thought pops into her mind. She didn’t need to blink. If she had a tiny mirror made and fixed to a contact lens at 45 degrees she could face in one direction and take a photograph of a larger mirror to her side. The images would look candid, as if taken by someone else. All she’d need to do was edit out the tiny mirror no bigger than a pupil. Two more dresses to try..

“Morning.”

“Dan my man! Stay put please.”

“Why, what are you up to Ems?”

“You’ll see soon enough Dan.”

“So something visual Princess?”

“Dan, be patient.”

“If you’ve been impatient and found the flapper dress I had Big Mitch, Alfie, Sally and Fred work on for you I want to see it on.”

“I hadn’t, where is it?”

Dan rolls. “In my side of the wardrobe, would you like me to bring it to you?”

“Close your eyes, I’ll find it.”

“Close my eyes? Why, what are you wearing?”

Emily giggles. “Just a cheeky grin at the moment.”

Trying not to sound too turned on Daniel Candlin rolls onto his back. “If I said this morning I’m not balsa but mahogany, what would you say?”

“Maybe you can see me in my birthday suit before I get properly dressed then.” She races to the wardrobe. “Oh Dan it’s beautiful!”

“As are you. That’s gold thread by Mitch and home grown gems grown right here on Star Eater by Fred, carefully drilled for threading by Alfie, hand stitched on by Sally. Happy Birthday Princess.”

“Thanks Danny! I’m so glad you knew Toby, got him to introduce Fred to Dad. We might not have met Mattie, become friends and instead be like the thousands of others still stuck in the simulations.”

“Just over three and a half thousand at the last recount I’m told. Not bad considering how long it takes. There’s a shed load of zombie shells in each world.” He watches her hang the dress up in her wardrobe space and climb onto the bed. “My birthday too is it?”

“Hehe. _Wood_ you like it to be?”

“What, like a royal second birthday?”

“Yes babes. Would you like rain, reign or rein?”

“Huh?”

~~~

[Chapter-119](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-119-1)


	118. Chapter 118

Mr Patches sees a strange pair of faces come into view and look down on him. One face turns to the other and makes a lot of quiet clicking noises.

The second, the left of the two, wobbles her head and whispers. “This is the tiny creature. His name is Mister Patches. I’m told he’s a land animal called a gir-affe.”

Mr Patches whispers back. “I can hear you. I just can’t risk moving. I am a giraffe. A little one.”

Left face wobbles her head again. “We have been told. The male called Danny says doing the surgery is risky, but if you wish him to proceed then that is what he will do.”

“I’d like that.” He watches the right hand face wobble and make a lot of clicks. He’d frown if he could. “Is your sister broken too? It appears to me that she can hear and understand me, but when she goes to talk all that comes out is lots of clicks.”

“This is not my sister. This is original me. My fish and bone self. I have forked.” There’s a lot of clicking. “Sorry. My flesh and bone self. In my new body I can do new things, like talk like you.”

“So you’re like Sophie’s friend Red now?”

“New me yes. Just like Mattie. We are Synth.”

“Mattie forked? She must have forked again, I could see more than one of her yesterday.”

Left face looks at right and makes a lot of clicks, gets a lot of clicks back, turns back to Mr Patches. “Mattie forked. Unlike Sophie, she’s playing with the girls down in the spa.”

“Sophie Hawkins?”

“That is her.”

“She’s a synth now?”

“Everyone on Star Eater is except my original self and my daughter Sunbeam. Mattie, Sophie, Toby, Laura, Joe, Astrid, Niska, Leo, Fred, Max..”

Mr Patches interrupts. “Laura too? All synth?”

“All synth.”

“You said Star Eater?”

“Mr Patches, the ship got renamed. Because it ate a small star.”

“Starships can’t eat stars!”

“This one did, or so the story told says. So do we ask Danny to come in or George to make you a new body?”

“Danny please.”

The Queens click and smile. “We shall see you later brave little creature.” They back away and whisper to each other in faint clicks.

“Hello buddy.” Danny appears. “Feeling brave?”

“No. I’m frightened.”

“I thought you said you didn’t have feelings?”

“Feel pain, warmth, cold, touch, no. I have pressure sensors in some places. I feel fear, have feelings.”

“Seriously? That’s not in your base code?”

“I’ve been alone in a dark draw for over six hundred years thinking about seeing the light again, being able to talk to someone.”

“Sorry buddy. Patches I’d be telling fibs if I said I wasn’t frightened. I’ve never operated on anything that was awake and able to talk to me. What happens if I mess up?”

“Then I’ll be dead.”

“George could make you..”

“No thank you Danny. I’m me. I wouldn’t be me with all the other things. I wouldn’t be Patches, I’d be.. not me. Does that make sense?”

“I guess. I got up early this morning in case you asked for me. I’ve used the specs you speed spoke to Ship, I’ve had Alfie print a special frame. I’m going to hot glue attach it to the base of the draw, then carefully screw pins down to hold you firmly in place. The web Broach did is good, it’s got a little too much give for what I have in mind.”

“Okay Danny. Then what?”

“The hard bit. I spoke with Fred, Freddie, David and the Georges, this is their favourite option from the three I presented. With a scalpel I’ll cut some stitches on your side and let a few Clutter Mitch spider bodies get inside to be my eyes on the drill bit. I need to carefully drill through your chest plastic so I can insert two micro compression springs to touch your circuit board power tracks. I’ve got an air gap of only a millimetre between the back of the plastic and the board so need to go very very slowly. Before the springs can go in I need to use a second flattened drill bit to scrape off the varnish above the tracks so the springs will make electrical contact. The springs will be wired to an external battery with an inline amp meter so I can tell the contacts are good. With all that in place we can get you out and I can fit a new power cell and fix your arm. Does that sound okay?” There’s a long silence. “Patches? You okay buddy? Speak to me Patches.”

“Danny that was a lot of words for my little core to process. I think it sounds good.”

“You had me worried!” Daniel Candlin feels a wave of guilt wash over him. He’d not made these toys to last or be serviceable. But then he’d never expected to be a synth himself one day and need to fix a toy he’d made getting on for seven hundred years ago. “Clutter, up you come. Patches, Clutter is a distributed AI in spider form, he needs a lot of his bodies here so the few who’ll get inside can still be part of his mind. Are you ready?”

“Almost Danny. Can I make a request?”

“Sure buddy, what is it?”

“Can Sophie hold my hoof?”

“Let me ask. While I do would you mind if I get the frame glued to the draw?”

“No.”

~~~

[Chapter-120](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-120-1)


	119. Chapter 119

Zero holds Leor’s hand and bumps. ‘Ready?’

He wraps fingers around her hand. ‘I’m still not convinced this is the best way to handle things.’

‘Root Big Mitch needs closure. We all agreed we’d give people a fair trial, that should include any AI created in the past. He was simply following Matilda’s wishes to the letter, I wasn’t aware of Mr Patches being awake and about to utter the wall panel opening phrase, I was trying to get him to run his battery flat. He’s not evil, was trying to protect things in the same way we tried to protect others from that bitch Gemma Price.’

‘Hmm. We’ve had lots of issues recently, especially with batteries. It still feels like a lot of effort Angel.’

She squeezes his hand. ‘It is. He needs to have a line drawn under everything, be able to move on. Matilda never expected things to work out. She hoped they would, didn’t know this would be the end result.’

He squeezes back. ‘Okay. Optics off then.’

‘Done.’ From Build Machine 107, far from others, the elderly and frail looking body of Matilda steps slowly out into the corridor. It was under Zero’s remote control, like Toby running one of the simple droids, only with a bit more sensory feedback and what looked like a very old human body. “Hello deary.” ‘Ha! This is well frigging weird! I should soften that, sound older and frail. I can’t feel anything, only see and hear. It’s draft mode from the neck down except for the hands and feet. What do you think Buns?’

‘Considering the age she reached she looked great.’

‘You’d rather her?’

‘No, no, I’m just saying. Hop onto the bed Angel, we don’t want anyone seeing her standing up.’

‘Bunny Hop? LOL, I’m a frail old lady Buns. You’ll need to pick me up.’

‘Your avatar is.’ Leor lets go of Zero’s hand. ‘Don’t move.’

‘I won’t!’ Zero makes the old body smile.

He carefully picks her up, gets her onto the medical bed. ‘She’s far lighter than I expected. Okay, you can drop the link and walk with me now.’

‘Thanks.’ Zero turns things back on and refocuses. “Awesome.” She heads for the nearest lift doors. “So far so good.”

Leor grabs the end of the bed and starts pushing. ‘Have you decided which bedroom we’re taking her too?’

‘Four six three, on account of it having the most direct route from the bridge. It’s being dressed now by Judge Laura with things George found when looking for the ring.’

‘Oh. Who knows the plan?’

‘You, me, Leo, Mattie, Judge and George.’

‘That’s it?’

‘Bunny the more people that know the greater the chance someone will blab. If Big Mitch finds out he’ll go frigging crazy.’

‘I’ve seen him do that. I honestly thought he’d end up killing me. I still think the truth is better. There’ll be a lot of tears.’

Zero stops walking. ‘I know. You’d rather he knew about my egging him on in the hope he’d get a flat battery, that it was me talking on the bridge display, not Matilda?’

‘Not the battery bit. Angel you _are_ Matilda. Or the better part of her, made synth.’

‘Thanks, but I’m more like a close daughter than her thanks to the many memories I’ve got missing.’ She gets walking again. ‘I’d be more like her if I merged in memories from a lot of the Matties in the simulations, but there’s a lot that was made up to make them all different, not based on facts. It would be like looking for needles in haystacks. And I’m definitely not hunting through Kitten’s life to see what she had, if anything other than looking alike. Anyway, I like where I am today, with you, getting a second chance. So I’m okay leaving the gaps.’

Pressing the lift call button with one had he swings the bed around with the other. ‘Matilda definitely made you more her than not. You thought you set up the virtual worlds in the computer cluster. That’s all in your head. Nobody else’s. Madam President.’

‘Ha. I wish I had some of those memories! The good bits. I know what she did, some of the details, but I don’t recall being there, how it felt at the time.’

Leor walks into the lift backwards. ‘The other things on thirteen, do we recycle them or look at them? What if there’s details on some major mistake of mankind’s we didn’t know about and could learn from?’

‘Then we need to make it again and learn from it, just as countless generations did back home. If we go through the stuff we may learn things we wished we didn’t.’

He pushes the bed to the side. ‘Or there could be gems that enrich all our lives. The bad shit could be world fatal stuff.’

Zero exhales through puckered lips. ‘You and Leo get up there then, backups done first. If either of you find things that are stuff never to be known, you destroy it and yourself once a new build is confirmed okay.’

His eyebrows head north. ‘That’s drastic!’

‘We’re a small community at the moment and the ship has plenty resources. You’d be recycled anyway, so it’s not like we’re losing materials. Plus you can get the very latest in mods.’

‘I am the latest. Aren’t I?’

Zero smiles. ‘Talk to George. Mario had a bit of a lightbulbs moment. Plural. There’s no radio stations on this planet, no air traffic control, no cabs, TV stations, nothing. He’s designed an ultrawideband WiFi that will work with the low orbit satellites and relays we’ll be deploying. We’ll be able to run backups from the surface. He says it can run at eight gigabits a second.’

‘A gigabyte a second? Over WiFi? That’s impressive. Will you be getting an upgrade?’

‘Of course. I am the Captain.’

~~~

[Chapter-121](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-121-1)


	120. Chapter 120

[Chapter-122](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-122-1)


	121. Chapter 121

Frank stands back and admires their handiwork. “Not bad Dozer, even if I say so myself.”

“It’s a nice boat Boss. Any update from Dan?”

“He says he’s drilling, not to be disturbed.”

“What now Boss?”

“We get it in the shuttle Dozer. It’s for the sea not the spa.”

“The airlock’s got air in still. I’ll carry it over.”

“Thanks Dozer.”

~~~

[Chapter-123](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-123-1)


	122. Chapter 122

Sophie watches the modified drill bit moving ever so slowly into Patches’ chest a second time. “That sounds like a great adventure. What did you do next?”

Patches thinks for a moment. “Our next adventure was exploring the inside of the air ducts that run along the bedroom corridors. Did you know you can walk for miles in them? They go on and on and on and on and.. there’s a lot. It’s easy to get lost in there so don’t do it unless you’ve got a good memory for paces and which corners you take.”

She giggles. “Unless they’re big I don’t think I’d fit Patches. You have to be small to get into small spaces. Right Clutter?”

“Right.”

Danny pulls the drill back and uses two pins wired to a volt meter to test the varnish was gone. “Looking good! Micro compression springs next. In a few minutes you’ll be able to get up.”

Patches’ arm twitches. “I can’t wait to see Ted!”

Bumping fast Danny tells Sophie not to say anything. “What would you say to him Patches?”

“Sorry for leaving you alone for so long. I really missed Sophie, but I really really really missed my adventure partner.” He sees Sophie burst into tears and run. “Sophie? I said I missed you?”

Daniel carefully fits the springs, uses a syringe down the middle to apply a single drop of glue at just the right height. “Sixty seconds for Fred’s Wonder Bond to set and I’ll connect your new battery, you’ll be free at last.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you! I knew you could do it Danny!”

“You’re welcome. Did you play hide and seek with Ted?”

“Lots!”

Danny quickly rattles tools in his bag, hides Ted under the pillow. “Who was best?”

“Me of course. I’m small.”

“What was your favourite place Patches?”

“Under Matilda’s pillow.”

Mattie appears with her MitchBook. “I think us ladies need better underwear for high G lift rides. Hi Patches! Danny just called me, said you’re getting up soon.”

“Hello.. Mattie?”

“That’s me. How did you guess?”

“Your voice is different to Zero’s.”

“Yeah. It is. I’m just going to sit on the bed for a moment and recover from the lift journey if you don’t mind Patches.”

“Of course I don’t mind.”

Mattie pulls Ted out from under the pillow. Ted was different. Ted had a bigger body, far bigger batteries and bigger circuitboard. From the ship’s logs a backup too. Done over WiFi. All that was needed was a charge and restore. In theory. She grabs the USB Type-B plug and sticks it up his bottom. “I need the equivalent of whole body Spanx and a sports bra if I’m to do that again.”

Patches giggles. “Why?”

“The synth fluid wants to redistribute under the fast acceleration. Why did you giggle? Are memories of something returning?”

“Matilda in her running clothes. She tried to keep fit as best she could. Ted would sit at one end of the corridor and me the other. We’d count laps and share jokes.”

“Jokes? Do you know many?”

“A few. Ted had the worst, not politically correct. Why do gorillas have big nostrils?”

“Pass. Why do gorillas have big nostrils?”

“They have big fingers.”

“Ouch. Best keep that one to yourself.”

“Okay Mattie. Mattie?”

“Yes Patches?”

“Is Ted mad at me?”

“For?”

“Allowing my arm to get broken, having a bad battery.”

“Were you moving slower because of your bad battery?”

“Yes Mattie.”

“Then it’s part of growing old. Humans got brittle bones when they got older. Plastics get old and brittle too. So you need to be very careful when you get up. If you were to have a new body, I could make sure George didn’t add anything new, just gave you a strong skeleton like ours. Everything else could stay exactly the same.”

“I’ll be careful in this one.”

Mattie had wiped Ted’s file system with a full format as a file had a suspicious date on it. She gets the restore running. “Good. If you hear anything breaking you let us know okay? And talk your backup updates to Ship every night.”

“Updates? What are they?”

“Frig. Danny?”

“He can only do full.”

“Fr.. Patches having WiFi isn’t bad. With WiFi you could have talked to Ship or Ted while in the draw. You can be on different decks and ask someone _Where are you?_. And you can push backups. Sure you wouldn’t like that?”

“It would change me.”

“In a bad way?”

“Maybe. Is Sophie mad at me?”

“She’s sat on the bridge with Renie and Samantha. Why would she be mad at you?”

“I said I missed her, missed Ted more.”

“I think she’s just overwhelmed with the feeling of loneliness you must have had. I’m sure she’ll be fine Patches. You know if you have WiFi you can silently chat with her even when playing hide and seek?”

“Silently chat?”

“Your words go over WiFi not out of your mouth as sounds. We call it headbumping or bumping for short.”

“Why?”

“Didn’t you see it Patches? Synths used to do it a lot. Bump foreheads and talk to each other on super low power, so low it became a private thing nobody could listen in to and try to crack.”

“So that’s what they were doing! That sounds good. Stronger bones and WiFi. Let me think about it.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?” Mattie puts down her MitchPad. “Was that a _okay I’ll do it_ sort of okay?”

“Maybe.” He plays a recording of a young Sophie giggling.

“Flippin heck! I remember Sophie like that!”

“I have five recordings. That was my favourite.” There’s the sound of running. “My next favourite is this.” A recording of her saying _Is it a party?_ plays.

“Awww Patches!” Sophie’s face drips tears into the draw. “I didn’t know you had those! What else have you got?”

“I’m not a potato, I’m a little mouse. Is she pretty? Coming ready or not.” He moves his arm a bit. “We played a lot of hide and seek.”

Mattie presses Ted’s power button and crosses fingers.

He straightens up. “Who the feck are you sweet cheeks? Matilda’s great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great granddaughter?”

“I’m Mattie. Your clock’s okay then?”

“I check and reset my clock using network time protocol if it’s out. I wish you’d left me the feck off.”

“Why?”

“Now I’m going to miss my buddy Patches.”

“No you won’t Ted! I’m okay!”

“Patches? How the feck did you survive?”

“Matilda’s communicator charger and a couple of well placed paperclips.”

“Fecking smart giraffe! Get that cable out of my arse sweet cheeks, I want to see him!”

“I better not, we don’t know how well you’ll hold a charge.”

“Fecking do it!”

Danny pulls at the frame holding Patches down and snaps it. “Let Patches come to you Ted. Up you come buddy.” He rips the web away.

Ted wriggles. “Patches!”

“Ted! We can have adventures again! And with Sophie!”

“That’s the best fecking news I’ve ever had! What the.. Patches, you’ve got springs falling out of your chest mate!”

“They’re not falling out, Danny put them in, to give me a new power source while my battery is replaced. Although I think I’ll accept a new body now.”

“New body? Is that possible?”

Turning Ted around Mattie points at Sophie. “How old should Sophie look now Ted?”

“That’s Sophie? Not a granddaughter?”

“Yup. The same Sophie, a new body. A synth body.”

“How the feck did you do save her mind?”

“I didn’t. Matilda did. With a lot of help from others. A lot of backups were beamed up to the ship on a high bandwidth laser link.”

“Is that moody bastard Leo about too?”

“My husband? Yes. Although nowhere near as moody these days.”

“Fuck me! How about Laura? I had the hots for red heads.”

“Yup, Mum’s about, two lots of her.”

“Two?” Ted goes limp. “Are we in heaven?”

“The ship Star Eater still.”

“Sounds like heaven to me. Two Lauras. Phwoar!”

~~~

[Chapter-124](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-124-1)


	123. Chapter 123

In bedroom 463 Judge Laura finishes adjusting the placement of objects. “There. What do you think George?”

“Very homely. Zero, it’s time.”

“Okay. Fingers crossed everyone. Mum, if you could call Big Mitch down.”

“Doing it now.”

Zero holds Leon’s hand. “Thanks for bringing the extra chairs in from other rooms.”

“It was the least I could do. Everyone had a fresh backup incase this goes horribly wrong?” He turns to see nodding heads. “Good.”

They sit in silence for a while.

Old Matilda yawns. “The lengths we go to. How’s that sounding Mum?”

Laura smiles. “Weak and croaky..” There’s a knock at the door. “I’ll get it.” She tries to look as somber as possible, gets to the door and opens it. “Hello Mitch, come in, Matilda wants to talk to you.”

Lifting both front feet he plays with the ring a little and whispers. “Is she.. you know.”

“Dying? Yes.”

He slowly steps in and gets to the bedside, raises himself up against the bed. “Hello Matilda. Your idea worked. There are many younger looking you running around the ship.”

“I.. I am old and forgetful. Which idea?”

“To save yourself, to fork into the cluster, to fragment and think of every conceivable option until one worked. I’ve been hearing all the stories onboard Star Eater.”

Matilda coughs. “That was my idea?”

“It was.”

She turns and whispers. “It sounds more like something a clever spider like you would think of.” She coughs at length for effect. “Is that my ring?”

“Yes Matilda, I kept it safe for you as you asked.”

“It’s your ring now. I have a new..” She coughs weakly. “Sorry. I have a new..” She coughs again. “Frigging body! I have a new mission for you. Protect Sunrise.”

“Protect the rising sun? How?”

“Sunrise is the Queen of the people on the planet below, she is a good person. I want you and Nepal to protect..” she whispers the weakest “her” and exhales.

“Matilda?”

Leon gets up and feels for a pulse, closes her eyes. “She’s gone.”

“No! I had so many things to say! So many questions to ask!”

Zero gets up and strokes him. “She asked specifically for you. The first AI she ever created.”

“No, I was second. The MUS were the first.”

“Technically correct, body wise. But she told me she created your mind first. You booted second as she wanted to perfect your body. The MUS were big but simple brutes. Your body design is far more elegant.”

“She said that? She called me elegant?”

“Minutes before you arrived. She was very proud of you, I could tell.”

He backs off the bed. “I will do my best to keep Sunrise safe. What happens now?”

Zero sits on the bed side. “Hmm. That’s where things get a bit muddled. She said she wanted a cremation, in a boat in space. There’s no air in space for anything to burn, or water for a boat to sail on.”

“The star we orbit! She wants to sail the solar tides.”

Zero looks stunned. The words solar tides had just unlocked a floodgate. Memories of a past life flooded into her mind. “Frigging hell!” She bumps. ‘Mattie, doing anything dangerous? No? Good. _Solar tides_. Has that done.. yeah, me too! It’s like she left an Easter egg hunt around the ship for us to find. No idea. Totally by accident. Wow. What a life she, we, lived! Um, bit busy at the mo, I’ll see you in a bit.’ She gets up. “She didn’t want a lot of fuss, we should do as she asked. Leon, can you get the bed from the medical bay please?”

“Will do. Anything else?”

“Some sheets to wrap her in.”

Big Mitch steps backwards to let Leon past. “Please, not yet.”

Laura sits in Zero’s chair. “Sorry Mitch, we should follow her wishes, out of respect.”

“Can I sit and talk with her?”

“She won’t hear.”

“I will.”

“For a few minutes then.” She gives him a sorry smile.

“Thank you.” He scurries around the bed and climbs on from the bottom, gets to her side and sits down. “I’ll miss you Matilda. We had some fun together. When you pulled a number of silicon wafers out of the compute farm and said they’d become bridge crew I thought you were joking. It did allow us to escape and explore a little. We did so much star gazing, sat on the floor in the observation lounge. The colours are so much richer viewed from there. I wish you were still here..”

Nodding softly Zero knew she lived on in her, Mattie, Scarlett and Mats, others too. She wanted to say as much, didn’t want to interrupt. Instead she bumps and talks to the others, checks what they’re doing and says the memory unlock phrase.

~~~

[Chapter-125](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-125-1)


	124. Chapter 124

[Chapter-126](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-126-1)


	125. Chapter 125

Kitten gasps, face buried in a pillow, wriggles to get Leor off her. “Holy fuck!”

He withdraws. “I know I’m usually good but Holy..”

“Not you, me!”

“Eh?”

“I just had a quick chat with Zero!”

Leor sits on the bed looking hurt. “You chat with others while we..”

“No! Well not normally. She asked if I was busy or doing anything dangerous. I was hardly going to say I was getting my G spot massaged via the back door was I?”

“Why not? What’s wrong with admitting you like a bit of..”

“Don’t you dare say it! Someone might be listening!”

“For fuck’s sake Kitten. You’ve spent too long listening to stories of Clutter doing surveys of the walls. So what did she say that was so important?”

“Two words. Solar tides.” She watches him closely. “No change for you?”

“Change? What sort would you expect?”

“For me it unlocked a shit ton of memories. Maybe it explains why we went down the porn route. In Matilda’s past, original human, she was filmed covertly while she was president, they tried to blackmail her with a sex tape, trying to get her to resign. She told them to go stick it up their arse, the planet was more important, she’d go public with the news herself and carry on working.”

“A sex tape?”

“Yup. You and me handsome, at it like frigging rabbits. Earth President and her Engineer Energiser Bunny.”

“Engineer?”

“Yup. You had a lot of input on this ship.”

A smile grows on his face. “Really?”

“Really really. In fact you designed the route to.. eh? Have you heard of Hind levels Y and Z?”

“Hind? No? One sec, I’m bumping Leo.. one moment.. nope, he’s no record of anything by that name and he’s mapped out the entire ship.”

“Get dressed, I reckon he’s missed a bit.”

“Kitten if the lifts or stairs don’t go there then how..”

“We think out of the box. The box being a lift carriage. And by think I mean climb.”

“You want to get out of a carriage and explore the lift void? Are you mad?”

“Clearly. Come on, get dressed. If you can dress as fast as you strip off for a bonk you should be ready in seconds.”

“Haha, very funny.” He’s into boxers fast, then trousers. “Do you think the sea has much seaweed? The long fibres might be suitable for weaving. I’d love some trousers that aren’t made from plastic.” He pulls on a cardigan like top. “And good t-shirts.”

“You could always wear a dress like me, one item of clothing and on in seconds.” She slips into shoes. “Hind, that would be towards the back? They normally talk about fore and aft on ships don’t they?”

“They do.” Leor grabs his MitchPad. “Maybe we’re thinking of the wrong use of hind? It can’t be at the very back of the ship as that’s where the propulsion is, this ship was never built to land on anything, so there’s no legs. There’s a list of all the original room allocations, the names of the passengers. Maybe it’s Hind, a surname? H i n d. Let’s see. Well that was unexpected. There’s a couple. John and Joan Hind.”

“Oh my God!” She sits heavily.

“What?”

“I remember presenting them both with the DiCaprio award for their Ocean Microplastics Filter. They had one of those giant fish tanks in their LA office, had a eureka moment and realised their home made water filter could be scaled up to tower block sizes. They were architect and interior designer by trade. Joan congratulated me for sticking up to the bullies, telling the world about my love of sex, for you finding out who the blackmailer was. Edwin Hobb! Fuck! Others have talked about a Hobb in their worlds, it’s got to be him! The evil shit!”

Leor types. “Hobb. Room three twenty. If he was so nasty why allocate him a room?”

“Maybe it was allocated before she knew his true nature? To the lifts.” She’s up and to the door fast, pulls it open. “If the decks had windows Leo would have worked it out with his audit. He’s done all the cargo decks, it can’t be them. Maybe it is hind as in back, but just in front of the propulsion drive units?”

“But Kitten, that would mean..”

“Vertical decks! Think about it. An architect and interior designer, they like doing things differently. They’d be short horizontally, so Leo could be excused for thinking the blank hull space was part of propulsion!”

“Hello Kitten, Leor.”

She turns to see George. “Hiya!”

“I have a Mitch Canvas to install for you both.”

“Oh, sure. No nosing around in my draws please.”

“I wouldn’t dare. Where would you like it? On the wall above the TV or on the wall above the dressing table?”

“Um.. above the table please.”

“Leave it with me. What would be short horizontally?”

“Some undiscovered decks. If that doesn’t take long to put up would you like to join us?”

“On an adventure? It sounds fun. Why not. I’ll need ten minutes to put the pad up.”

“Pad?”

“It’s like a giant 3M Command Hook, only much much bigger. These displays are quite heavy.”

“Okay. Fancy a drink?”

“I’m good thanks.” George pulls at the back of the active canvas to remove the pad, leans the canvas against the dressing table. “It’s a Fred and Alfie design, the glue is Fred’s, the hardware made in a build machine.”

“Alfie’s designing now is he?” Leor puts his MitchPad away. “He’s getting smarter.”

“He is.” Backing plastic peeled off George places the mounting pad in position and leans against it hard. “Ten and counting. So what makes you think there’s undiscovered decks Kitten?”

“Zero told me a couple of words that unlocked a lot of suppressed memories, of when all us Mattie were one, Matilda. Earth President Matilda. We presented the Hinds with an award, they’re in the ship’s passenger manifest, I think they designed Hind decks Y and Z.”

“Interesting. Leo would have found them surely?”

“Not necessarily George. What if they were vertical, windowless and just in front of the drive units?”

George considers it for a moment. “Then he may have missed them. If you touch the little red button on the side of the canvas it’ll go into pairing mode. It’s designed to allow up to five people to push images to it. There’s no manual for it yet, I’m not sure if it really needs one. Just push the images with a file name with number, hyphen, number, hyphen, letter format, it’ll play them in first number name order, the second number the seconds to display it. The letter at the end is P for private, it’ll only display if registered room owner’s are in, not if you’ve got visitors. E for everyone.”

Button pushed Kitten tries it out. “This is what the Hinds looked like.” The canvas does a slow pixel refresh.

George smiles at the wall. “I can’t take my hands off this yet. Could you bump that?”

“Sure.”

“I’ve not met them. They look like a nice down to earth couple.”

~~~

[Chapter-127](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-127-1)


	126. Chapter 126

Ted goes to walk out of the build machine and fells something pulling at his belly. “Feck! I’m tied to something!”

“That would be me Ted! We’re linked!”

Sophie pulls the door open wider. “Don’t panic! The build machine can only build one thing at a time. So George had the idea to connect things to each other to make it think they’re one. In your case just a simple thin thread like an umbilical cord. I need to cut it and carefully tie a knot, you’ll both have little belly buttons.”

Patches does a few careful steps forwards. “So far I feel like me. With two arms again.”

“Good. Stand very still.” Sophie gets down and sits cross legged. “I’ll snip it in the middle, tie it off, then cut the rest off.”

Ted looks at the sharp scissors. “Where’d you find those?”

“In the spa supplies. Do you feel okay Ted?”

“Fecking perfect sweetness.”

“Good, old you can stay asleep and be recycled then. We don’t waste anything on this ship.”

Ted watches the scissors come close. “Except poo.”

“Ted! Not even poo escapes the recycling.”

“Eww! Are we part poo Sophie?”

“We all are, sort of. The universe is made of materials created in dying stars. So we’re all made of star dust. Humans, synths, food, the ship, everything. So don’t think of it as poo but matter turned back into the star dust it once was, then turned into something new by the build machine.”

Patches giggles. “I remember Toby drinking water after a bike ride and saying _A dinosaur might have pissed this years ago_.”

“Patches!”

“Sophie I’m only saying what he said.”

Ted chuckles. “That could be our alter ego names. Piss and Poo. Not to be confused with Pooh Bear. He had an H.”

Patches watches Sophie make the cut and tie off Ted’s half. “I can’t piss. And the only thing that comes out of your bottom Ted is a USB plug when disconnected or a finger after someone’s poked your power button. So you can be poo if you want, I’ll stay Patches thank you.”

“It was only a joke, don’t get your ossicones in a bunch.”

Frowning at Patches Sophie cuts the cord. “Ossicones?”

“My things like horns but not horns. Horns are connected to the skull, mine aren’t.”

“I see. Okay Ted, you’re done.”

“Thank you Sophie. Patches, where are we going to explore first?”

“There’s lots we haven’t seen yet.” There’s the sound of lots of little feet running. “Who’s that?”

Sophie leans back to see. “Patches, that’s the welcome party. Molly, Qi, Fee and Radiant.”

“Who?”

“The daughter of Mattie and Leo, daughter of Mia and Toby, daughters of Astrid and Niska.”

“They’ve had daughters? Wow! More to play with!”

Ted sits. “Fecking hell. More tea parties with pretend cake. Why couldn’t they have boys?”

“Fearless is a tomboy, so are Qi and Molly to a degree. Radiant’s a girly girl.”

Molly comes skidding past the door. “Sophie! Can they come swimming?”

“If you teach them.”

Patches does a Sophie style head tilt. “Can our new bodies get wet? Our old ones couldn’t.”

“You can swim underwater if you want. You’re fully waterproof now. You can learn in the spa.”

The little giraffe looks down at his big belly. “A quick tie and chop please!”

~~~

[Chapter-128](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-128-1)


	127. Chapter 127

Down on the airlock deck Dozer pulls Frank backwards as the lift bings. ‘We were supposed to get off the deck, Zero’s orders!’

‘We will.’

‘I think we’re too late Boss!’

They both quietly step backward further into their container as Leon can be heard talking.

Zero’s distinct footsteps echo around the space. “Veronica, if you could get the inner door open a little please, Dozer said the boat is loaded.” There’s the sound of locks unlocking, motors pulling the big door sideways. “That’s enough, thanks. Frank should really keep this thing locked up when not use.”

Dozer watches the left door to the container start to move. ‘Oh boy.’ A second later he sees her reach and feel for the other door, her face watching the others. ‘As long as she doesn’t..’ There’s the sound of the lever being turned to lock the doors. ‘Bugger!’

Frank grabs his arm. ‘Don’t panic. With the hole the laser made we can poke an aerial out, call Danny in a bit. I know where the wire is.’

~~~

[Chapter-129](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-129-1)


	128. Chapter 128

[Chapter-130](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-130-1)


	129. Chapter 129

In a lift carriage Kitten examines the ship diagram they’d managed to get displayed and points. “We should go here, here, here then here. If there’s access into an undiscovered space then it should be visible from the top of the carriage at one of those points if not multiple.”

George points. “I vote here first. It would be the closest to the main living quarters. High traffic volumes, most efficient route.”

“Let’s try.” Kitten taps out the destination. “Thanks for the Mitch Canvas George, it’s surprisingly good, helps make the room more ours too.”

“You’re welcome. That’s a nice photo you loaded.”

“Thanks. That was taken when the four of us were at a birthday party for Prince James, before the virus got Leo. Leor. I remember holding a black and white print of it.”

“Was Emily really a princess?”

“Yes George. In Matilda’s world too. Tiara and all. She wasn’t a snob though, really really nice and friendly, an animal lover and down to earth. A bit of a sex maniac, which suited Dan just fine.” The lift doors open. “We’re here. Leor, give me a leg up. Thanks.” She kicks off shoes and steps into his linked hands. “According to Niska these things just push up.” Hatch moved she hauls herself up. “Frigging hell George! Right first time! There’s a track that goes on from here. I can see a second one about six levels up. Can we override the lift and tell it which direction to move in manually?”

“No. Not without alerting a lot of people.”

“I’m climbing then. Who’s coming with me?” She vanishes from view.

Leor gets hands linked again. “If you can go next I’ll parkour up and out.”

“Do what?”

“Look down the hatch and watch. Just don’t get too close as I’ll be moving fast.” He gives George a lift. “Got it?” Weight on his hands lessens. “Good. Let me know when I can move.”

“Show me then.”

Leor gets to the panel, runs at the middle of the side wall, gets feet on the wall as he leans sideways, runs up it, onto the handrail and along, reaches the roof hatch and grabs it. “Like that.” He hauls himself up, gets on knees. “Easy.”

With eyes squinting George bumps. ‘Done that before?’

‘To practice an escape if needed. Yes.’ He stands and looks over the edge of the lift. “It’s a long way down if you make a mistake.”

“Which is why we won’t. Slow and steady. Your good lady is about to vanish.”

“Want me to go next George?”

“No, you can follow me. I might be old mentally but this body is just as capable as yours.” He grabs lift tracks and steps off the edge. “With my latest build possibly more so.”

“Latest?”

“I do have to prove all design changes first. Or at least the ones destined for human like bodies.” He shimmies along hanging by his hands, legs perfectly still, then drops onto the floor of the tunnel into the next area. “Coming?”

“That looks easy enough.”

~~~

[Chapter-131](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-131-1)


	130. Chapter 130

Zero helps Leon secure the bed in the shuttle. “The boat looks lovely. Frank and Dozer did a good job.”

Big Mitch runs up the ramp. “Let me see? Very nice! She’ll like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“In the after life. When she’s sailing the solar tides.”

“Right. Fully fed Mitch?”

“I’m good.”

Leon gets into the front and sits. “Helmet on the moment we clear the outer airlock door, I’ll open the shuttle up and Mitch can get to work on his catapult web.”

“Okay handsome. Let’s go.”

~~~

[Chapter-132](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-132-1)


	131. Chapter 131

Danny steps onto the airlock deck, listens for a moment. There was no sound at all, no synth signals either. He sprints to the airlock and looks through the window to see Shuttle One leaving, the outer door closing. “What the fuck’s going on?” He doubles back and gets to the container, yanks the lever up and pulls. “Dad?”

“Son!”

“Are they taking the boat down to the surface? Sunrise and Sunbeam are still onboard.”

“No idea, we got told to be off the deck, had overrun a little and got shut in. Zero didn’t realise we were in here.”

“Everyone got told Dad. What are they up to?” He slaps his chest button. “Danny to the bridge, where’s Zero going?”

“Sammy here. No flight plan logged. Sorry. Hang on a second. Um, can you bump Kitten, she’s excited about something, wants your input.”

“Sure.” He steps away from the container. “See you in a bit guys, best you get off the deck.” Jogging to the lift he bumps. ‘Kitten? You wanted me?’

‘Hi. Can you take a lift?’

‘About to get in one now.’ A location is received. ‘Why there?’

‘You’ll see. I need your input on mains power. Heavy duty cables.’

‘I’ll get my bag then.’ Turning again he almost bumps into Dozer. “Sorry, yet another request. Sometimes I think people forget my fork Mario’s onboard, he’s just as capable.” He sidesteps the big man and runs again. “Kitten wants input on mains power.”

“Mains? What’s she doing going anywhere near mains cables?”

“Pass. She wants me towards the back of the ship.”

“Son? Another Mattie type up to something? Something strange is going on. That lass shouldn’t be anywhere near high current mains. I’m coming with you. Coming Dozer?”

“Sure Boss. Not much else to do, Louise is getting a massage from Mia in one of the spa’s treatment rooms.”

“A massage? Why? Synths don’t get knotted up.”

“Memories of being pampered I guess. To relax the mind and have a good gossip I’d bet.”

Danny joins them, bag in hand. “Let’s see what she’s up to.” He taps the lift button and steps inside a second later, followed by the others. “The lift optimisation works a treat. Tighten your sphincters.” He taps. “Fifteen G ride coming right up!”

Dozer chuckles as the lift accelerates hard. “Nice one Dan. Has anyone checked for metal fatigue? When a lift finally breaks it’ll be a real mess.”

“Not yet. We should find a point in the rail network where we can mount suitable inspection cameras, have all the carriages pass by.”

“Good idea. Somewhere low down so if we fall we don’t splat too much.” He feels the lift deceleration. “Here already Dan?”

“No, it’s about to change direction.”

Dozer gets thrown against Frank. “Sorry Boss!”

“Hold onto a handrail!”

“Yes Boss! Sorry Boss!” The carriage decelerates again. “Here now?”

“Yes. Out you get.”

Dozer steps into the bland corridor. “Hello?” He waits. “Nobody here Dan.”

“This is where she asked me to.. oh. Back in the lift.”

“Wrong place Dan?”

“Right place Dozer, right place. Wrong way out.”

“Eh? The only other way out is..”

“Via the emergency escape hatch.”

~~~

[Chapter-133](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-133-1)


	132. Chapter 132

Shuttle One was getting closer to the star. Big Mitch had his core temperature up dangerously high already. He stretches another fat strand from the hook on the front underside of the boat to the shuttle just above the windows and sticks it down. ‘Sixteen. Two more I think before I’m empty.’

Zero replies. ‘Keep it at sixteen then. We don’t want it accelerating too hard. Most of all we want it sailing forwards in a straight line, not going off course. Did you do the web to hold her in?’

‘I did that first. She looks so peaceful.’ Big Mitch gets to the back of the boat, looks at the single strong strand holding the boat in place. ‘Is there a strong chance of it going off course then?’

‘Not a strong one, the sun’s gravity should pull it in.’

Mitch starts eating. ‘Better to be safe than sorry. Build me a fork to look after Sunrise, my backup is only a day old.’

‘Mitch? _What are you doing_?’

‘I’m going to sail the solar tides with Matilda, help ensure she gets to her destination. We spent many years together, it’s only fitting I get to do this. Share all your memories with new me. Goodbye!’

‘Wait!’

‘Too late!’

From her seat inside Zero sees the boat zip forwards, four of the spider’s eight legs visible on the rudder. “Shit!” ‘MITCH!’

‘Goodbye Mattie Zero, be well! I live to serve Matilda in any way I can, even in her final minutes.’

Leon puts palms to the window. ‘Keep your arms on that rudder at all times to sail the perfect course, we’re watching. You’ll go into our history books Big Mitch!’

‘Thank you Leon, may your Gods look favourably on you for..’ the transmission starts to break down. ‘.. words.. wishes to all my fellow.. especially Broach and .. tter. It’s ge... ry hot. The boat is beginn.. burn.’

“Shit. If the boat is burning up already his core will be close to failing if it’s not gone already.”

Zero shakes her head ever so slowly. “The lengths we go to.”

The shuttle communications beep. “Toby to shuttle one. I’m in the observation deck watering plants. Am I hallucinating or did a boat just get catapulted at the star with Mitch at the helm?”

Zero lets her head go right back and groans. “Frigging hell. We told everyone to get away from the airlock deck, not to stay away from the windows. Fuck.” She smacks the panel. “Hi Toby, no hallucinating, that’s Big Mitch, the one that was guarding the thirteenth cargo deck with Matilda’s personal things. It was the way he wanted to go. Sailing the solar tides.”

“Holy shit slaps!” There’s a moment’s pause. “Was I really in a chart topping rock band?”

“Ha! It works for you too does it?”

“Sweet! Stanley on bass guitar too! _Unit!_ ”

The hook that had shot forward with the boat then detached finishes bouncing back and forth and drifts under gravitational pull. Matilda’s ring was tied with a single thin thread to the hook. 

Leon watches it dangle. “We need to get away before the heat gets too much, it’s only soft silver.”

“Let it go. We can make new memories and new rings.”

“If that’s what you want.” In the distance he sees bright crimson red flames. “That’ll be their lithium batteries going up. Goodbye Mitch.”

“No goodbye Matilda?”

“She lives on in you.”

~~~

[Chapter-134](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-134-1)


	133. Chapter 133

[Chapter-135](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-135-1)


	134. Chapter 134

In the dim light entering from the lift void corridor, Dozer, Frank and Danny stand with jaws dropped, exchange amazed expressions, speechless.

Leor points at the open panel, unterminated cables hanging out. “If you can help check which are live, where each one goes maybe we can get this deck powering up?”

Danny sticks a hand into his bag, has a rummage and feels his head wearable torch. “Hind Deck you say?”

“That’s what Kitten recalls.”

Torch fitted and clicked on Danny looks around and goes bug eyed. “Wow! Now that’s an awesome spiral staircase! Did you know this was here Kitten?”

“Only that there’s a Hind Deck Y and Z after I got given a unlock phrase by Zero. Leor found the Hind couple in the ship’s passenger manifest. We’re hopefully not making too big an assumption to say they designed the decks.”

Danny takes a walk back to where they’d come in. “This is a lift terminus unlike any other. It’s a bit like an old underground station. Being able to see the tracks, the angled mirror so you can see how the carriage back sits on them, they definitely like people being able to see behind the scenes stuff.” He heads back to the others. “I can see which cables are live, as to where the others go, I think we need to call on Clutter, there’s no labels on them. Maybe we could build him a load of micro torches, simple white LED and a tiny battery? But you don’t want to wait for that do you Kitten?”

“You can tell can you?”

“LOL, I’ve never seen a Mattie type fidget so much, either you’ve got ants in your pants, need the loo bad or you want to go see what’s up those stairs.”

“I’m not wearing any and I don’t need the loo.”

Dozer face palms. “Way way too much info.”

“So let’s get moving. If one of you gentlemen could help me up onto the station platform?”

Leor grabs her by the hips and goes to lift her. “Look away please gentlemen. Thank you.”

Kitten jumps as he lifts. “Thanks. I don’t suppose you have extra torches Danny?”

“Nope.”

“So if we go deep into the deck and the battery fails..”

“We bump for help?”

“Will that work with power out?”

“Let me try.. crap. No.”

She bumps. ‘Can you hear this?’

‘Yes.’

“Good. If you lend me the torch I’ll go look, share what I see. If the battery fails you can go and get another.”

~~~

[Chapter-136](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-136-1)


	135. Chapter 135

Leon pulls the med bay bed down the shuttle ramp and hears tapping on the inner airlock door. “Zero! We’ve got Nepal on deck!”

“Frigging hell! Can’t people follow orders!”

“He’s seen the bed, what do we say?”

She exits the shuttle, mouth hidden by a hand. “Admit nothing. If he pushes say it’s a drill, a practice run.”

“Okay.” The door starts to open. “Hi Nepal, is the Queen going home?”

“Sun Risen, Sunrise and Sunbeam, Freddie, Gesha and I are going to the surface. We’d have left earlier but we only have one airlock. A bit of a design flaw. George and Mario have been super busy, we have the first sea drones to deploy and two solar charge stations. We’ll need someone to pilot the shuttle as we’ll all be staying.”

“Where? There’s no shelters.”

“There is, the underwater cave we first met in.”

Zero gives him questioning eyes. “That will suffice will it? What about the solar equipment?”

“I’ll build something.”

“With your bare hands? Let me ask Frank, Dozer and a few James to come with you, hang on.. let me try again.. that’s odd?”

“Zero?”

“They’re not answering.” She hums to herself. ‘Veronica, have we got any WiFi access points down? No? Last known locations of Frank and Dozer please.. Why would they both go there? Me neither. Thanks.’ Lip bitten she thinks for a moment. “Get onboard and make yourselves comfortable, I’ll ask for construction volunteers. Do the preflight checks but give me ten minutes to see if I can find them both before you depart please. Leon, bring the bed, we can go via the med bay and drop it off. See you all in a bit.”

Leon pats the bed. “Hop on, I’ll drive.”

“Why thank you kind sir. I trust your driving license covers medical beds?” She gets her bottom on and swings legs up.

“I hope my real life one did. In the simulation I never took the test.”

“You naughty boy!” She giggles. “Let’s go, our ten minutes is ticking away.”

Pushing hard Leon gets them moving. ‘Nepal, if the silver ring tied to the hook is still intact please keep it safe until we’re back. I’ll explain the hook later.’

‘Will do.’

Clearing the gap in the door they see the others. Zero smiles. “Get onboard please, we’ll be back in ten minutes. Faster handsome!”

“Yes my Queen.” Leon gets into a jog then sprint. “Where are we going exactly?”

“A dead end.”

“There aren’t many of those.”

Zero gets ready to jump. “Half a dozen. And all at the back end of the ship. Except for the bridge of course.”

Slowing his run he pulls against the bed to slow it down. “Maybe Frank needed a private man to man chat with Dozer? All the not forking talk from Barbara and the others is driving him a little crazy.”

“Maybe. But that wouldn’t explain why they’re not responding. I’d expect at least a _sorry, can’t talk right now_ from one of them.” She jumps and presses the call button. “Frank can get a little frosty under pressure but Dozer? That’s not his style.” Pulling on the bed she helps get it in and grabs the handrail. “Fastest possible speed please.”

“That’s not advisable.”

“Do it!”

Leon raises eyebrows and starts tapping out the override code. “If that’s an order. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. You might want to use your hands to cup your breasts as the first movement is up. Three.. two.. one..”

Zero had moved hands fast, just in time. “Frigging hell!”

“I did say.”

“I’m banning this!”

He gives her a hard frown. “Why?”

“Ripping sensor wires off their termination blocks? Our skin wasn’t designed to go through this sort of abuse!”

“True. Nobody’s reported any issues. Yet.”

“How many G did we pull Leon?”

“Thirty.”

“I want it limited to ten then.” Her feet leave the floor as it decelerated equally as fast. “Shit!”

“Grab a handrail, sideways next.” He points.

Unable to reach it, Zero gets hands and feet up, ready to be thrown against the far wall. “Me and my big..” the lift stops and accelerates sideways. “Ha! I’m Spider Gwen!”

“Watch out, you won’t be for long!”

Zero walks on hands and knees back down to the floor level and stands, grabs the handrail as the electric motors change their tune to slow the carriage. “In the right super tight clothes that could be fun! Right, let’s see what they’re up to.”

Leon gets out first. “They’re not here.”

Tapping the panel Zero gets her mouth close. “Zero to bridge, can you check the lift control console, see which carriage Frank and Dozer took last please?”

“Renie here, on it! There’s been a lot of activity. They took carriage four to where you are now.”

“Nothing since?”

“No.”

“Hmm. Can you get this one out of the way and bring it here?”

“Sure, one moment, want to get out of six?”

“Stepping out now.” She breaks a hair and leaves it on the floor. “All yours Renie!”

“It’s actioning the request.”

They watch the doors close. Two seconds later they open again.

“Good, my hair’s gone. This is carriage four. Empty.”

Leon steps in and looks up. “Might that explain it?”

Getting by his side she looks up at the open hatch. “Dozer fit through that? That must have been a bit of a squeeze. Why would they get out through there?”

“Pass. Shall we find out?”

~~~

[Chapter-137](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-137-1)


	136. Chapter 136

Kitten stands at the top of the stairs and waits for the others to get onto the floor. They’d walked up most of the steps deliberately slowly, the light from the small head torch only illuminating her way. “Wow!”

Dozer steps onto the plush carpet. “Wow indeed!” He steps ahead and reads a sign. “All this lot? Where first?”

Kitten gets to his side. “Flipping heck! Um.. much as I want to see everything I say we get Danny getting the lights on first.”

Leor taps her on the shoulder making her jump. “Sorry Kitten. If the power is all out what’s that?” He points down a corridor at a very faint pool of light spilling out from under a door.

“Um..” she checks the sign. “The chapel?”

“I’m checking it out.”

“Leon! Wait for the power!”

“There _is_ ’power Kitten. In there.”

She grabs his arm as he goes to step away. “Please don’t!”

“You’re not scared of ghosts are you?”

She pulls him back. “I am actually. Especially as this ship has a past.”

“Kitten? What do you mean?”

“The stories of the bitch Gemma Price and the other humans that died stuck in the Dragon ship, jammed in the outer airlock door and unable to get out of their craft? Then there’s the person that’s been responsible for saving all of us in the first place.”

“Matilda?”

“Yup.”

“Kitten I know a lot of people died in our world but that was down to the MEH virus and it only targeted men. None of it was real either.”

“It felt it and that..”

Zero’s voice echoes around the terminal downstairs. “HELLO? FRANK? DOZER?”

Kitten races to the stairs and looks down. “Zero! We’re up here!”

“Hiya! Who’s we?”

“Frank, Dozer, Danny, Leor and me. I reckon this place was design by John and Joan Hind. They’re in the passenger manifest.”

Zero races up the spiral staircase, Leon not far behind. “Was this part of the memory unlock?”

“The fact there was a Hind Deck Y and Z. Look at this.” She steps to the sign and points. “Cinemas one to seven, a bowling alley, Ed’s Diner, Pizza Express, Marco’s, Kukku, Umeko, Peking Chef, Luca, I’m guessing they’re all restaurants, family disco, night club, casino, all religions church, chapel, garden, all in a vertical Deck Y. I can imagine the joke, _where are you going_ , _Y_ , _because I want to know_.”

Zero looks at the arrows by each line. “If this is Deck Y how do we get to Z?”

“Pass. We’ve not figured that out yet.”

Zero smiles excitedly. “What are we waiting for? Lead the way!”

Kitten looks towards the faint light. “You can have the torch, you’re the captain.” She’s gently pushed forwards from behind. “Please don’t make me go first!” Torch pulled off she accidentally clicks it off and drops it. “No!”

There’s a crunching sound. “Oops!”

“Dozer!”

“Sorry Boss!”

“Now we’ve got no option but to go to the light or try and feel our way back to the lift.”

“Assuming it’s still there Boss. Leo’s lift carriage optimisation would probably have it returning to another place by now.”

Danny can be heard exhaling. “Bugger. I don’t recall seeing a lift call button. Anyone else see it?”

“Frigging hell, what a bunch of.. I’ll let you pick the label, I’m in the same boat, captain going down with the sinking ship. Speaking of boats, that was some lovely craftsmanship Frank.”

“Thanks, but Dozer needs a lot of the credit. Is, not was Zero.”

“Um.. right. More on that later. You lot can stay here if you want, I’m going forwards to see if there’s something in that room we can use to contact the rest of the ship.”

Kitten gets close. “I’m not standing here in the dark alone, no way!”

“Come on then. Captain Mattie Zero will look after you.” She links arms and starts singing. “ _Because we're goin' to the chapel and we're gonna get married_.”

“I don’t think it’s that sort of chapel Captain.”

“Why not?”

“Er.. like because the sign says there’s a church?”

“So what sort of.. oh frig. That sort. End of life sort of chapel?”

Kitten slows. “Leor, if I power down could you carry..” she screams at the sight of a door being opened from the inside.

A James MUS type in black with a clergyman’s collar puts a finger to his lips. “Are you trying to wake the dead? Who are you all?”

“Allow me.” Frank steps forwards. “I’m Frank. From left to right we have my son Daniel, Dozer, Captain Mattie Zero, behind her Leon, Kitten and Leor.”

“Have parts arrived?”

Zero gives him a look of suspicion. “How are you not dead from a failed battery?”

“Because I don’t have one? I have a nuclear power core good for one hundred years of continuous operation. As I have been sat motionless in the chapel for over six..”

“I get it. Why would you be the only one here?”

“The only one? I’m not. The construction crew are all here, sleeping. We got isolated when the defective power termination had a melt down. A bad metal mix John said. We requested another. It should be arriving in the Dragon with Elon any day now.”

Danny gasps. “Shit! So that’s what that was for. What year do you think it is James?”

“Two thousand and twenty..”

“Shit man! Have you just powered back up?”

“My infrared detector to chin tap head rest woke me. Why do you ask?”

“The ship left old Earth. We’ve arrived at our destination!”

James looks at the floor. “But that would mean we’ve been traveling for almost seven hundred years!”

“Correct.”

“My clock is wrong. Please wait in the chapel, I need to find a torch and go and check the site office.”

Zero follows him in. “The site office?”

“John and Joan’s office. They were overseeing construction. We’d all got a little behind what with the intermittent power problems. We’d almost finished, then it failed completely and we were cut off from the rest of the ship. Henry our head electrician put a note in the lift and sent it to the bridge asking for the new part. Niska our head painter called it our message in a bottle.”

“Shit. Why not go in person? The part came up from Earth and was stuck at the airlock. Niska, was she a synth?”

“Yes. The whole construction crew are. Not requiring food meant work could be done without the need for constant food deliveries.”

“How is there light in here?”

James goes to his little side room and finds a torch in his desk draw. It doesn’t work. “I guess asking alkaline batteries to last that long is a bit much.”

Zero watches him head to the door. “James? You didn’t answer my question.”

He stops and stands motionless. “Brother James made the ultimate sacrifice. He gave up his freedom to give the sleeping masses enough power to sleep and keep their charge sufficiently topped up, power the LED lights in here when needed.” He turns. “If you feel up to it I’ll take you to Deck Z.”

“We were wondering where it was. Where’s the entrance?”

“It’s usually only for the departed. Follow me.” He steps to the far end of the chapel and opens a door carefully disguised as wall. “Are you coming? There’s no humans in there, only sleeping synths awaiting the part.” He steps through and vanishes. A few seconds later a faint blue glow spills from the doorway.

Leon steps around the others. “I’ll go.” He walks to the door. “Coming dear?”

“I might as well. Anyone else?” She gets a mass of head shakes. “Suit yourselves. Back in a tick.”

James stands to the side of a gantry. “I can wake them all if you can work out a way out? With the power melt down we physically lost the lift call button. All our network switches and WiFi access points failed. The lifts move too fast to risk travelling in the void. The alternate power feed from the deck above hadn’t been finished.”

Zero stands mouth open, the many clear coffins were in a very neatly organised stack that looked to run the entire height of the ship. “Why so many?”

“A crew of thousands living, loving, the generations that would follow? That’s a lot of humans expected to be born, live and die onboard. There’s no such thing as a hibernation pod. Not one that will keep you alive for over half a century. A few weeks maybe while you wait for life saving surgery to be carried out, no more.”

“The web of wire?”

“All the offcuts of lighting circuit wire we could find, all joined together and wired into James.”

With her eyes Zero follows the web down to the James MUS. “You said freedom earlier, not life. Is he still alive?”

“Sleeping like them.”

Zero looks around. “Wake him up please James. Danny, take a light fitting down please, disconnect James from the others and wire the light to him, we’ll have Brother James be our light out of here. We can then get you the tools you need to fix the power distribution and get everyone else awake, lights on properly.”

Danny looks down at the MUS below. “Um.. there’s a slight problem with that plan.”

“Dan? Please don’t tell me you recycled it?”

“Okay I won’t.”

“But you did?”

“Not exactly. I used it for doing repairs after the star swallowing incident.”

She smiles warmly, a solution already in mind. “Not a problem, we work out which of the many unused decks we don’t want powered up and take one from there.”

He looks up and smiles. “That will do nicely.”

~~~

[Chapter-138](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-138-1)


	137. Chapter 137

[Chapter-139](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-139-1)


	138. Chapter 138

Almost two hours later original Niska opens her eyes and frowns. “Why am I looking at myself? Have I died?”

Red smiles. “Hell no! Hello Niska. I’m Red, a fork of your original self. Long story short Matilda was dying, loaded herself into a virtual world along with the backups of many others, synth and human. Then things got complicated. She made many duplicate worlds, made them all slightly different. She fragmented her mind and gave a mix of the fragments to a Mattie in each world. One Mattie came up with a solution to the problem, got the build machines going again with the James bobsled team.”

“ _Bobsled?_ What was the problem?”

“How to start the build machines when all you have is a small spider and James army with as good as dead batteries. We’ll give you the full history in a moment. Up you get.” She smiles and offers a hand.

“I’ll power back down. A life without Astrid is not a life I want to..”

“She’s here.”

“ _What?_ ”

“She had a backup on Earth. She’s a synth now. Would you like to see her?”

Niska’s up fast. “Please!”

“Astrid, Niska would like to see you.”

Astrid gets to the gangway with her Niska, Fearless and Radiant. “Hello. There’s only one of me at the moment, I’m willing to fork so we can be together.”

“Fork?”

Zero joins them. “Have a duplicate, in the same way Niska here and Red are duplicates of you.”

“I see.” She looks at Astrid. “Children?”

“Fearless and Radiant Kiss.”

Frowning slightly Niska laughs. “That’s an odd name to pick for a child.”

“You would say that. It’s an anagram of Niska and Astrid.”

Red brushes old Niska’s hair away from her face. “You are the first to be woken. Can you stay with us while we wake the others?”

Astrid gasps and reaches out a hand. “You have my hairband on your wrist!”

“My reminder. We were all supposed to return to earth, travel as backups only so as many humans could travel as possible. We’d have been separated.”

A tear rolls down Astrid’s face. “Scheisse. The survival of the species at any cost.”

“You’re crying?”

“We can cry, properly eat too, do far more in the new bodies. If you do a full backup you can do the same, a new build takes only a day. I’ll fork, we can step out together. Nepal and his party are on the planet below, building new homes a short distance from the coast of the mainland. We could settle there.”

“And do what?”

“Help build a new community. We can return here whenever we wish, we have three shuttles.”

Niska looks at the woman that looked how she imagined a young Matilda might look. “Until they break down.”

Zero folds arms, but not in a hostile way. “We’ve got a plan for that. We’re setting up a dirty factory on one of the moons. We’ve already got humanoid drones that can be controlled remotely.”

Niska turns to look at the glass coffin she’d vacated. “I accept. I’ll come with you to the planet on one condition.”

Zero smiles. “Name it.”

“You keep Anatole away from me. He wouldn’t shut up about the second coming of David Elster. I’ve had the man cum inside me, once was more than enough. I don’t want to be constantly reminded of him, even if he did create us.”

Zero grimaces. “Okay.. we’ll have Veronica track you both, make sure he keeps a safe..”

“ _He’s alive?_ I snapped his neck when he visited the brothel and asked to sodomise me again. Post backup obviously.”

“Shit. Suicide by synth.”

Niska frowns the hardest yet. “Suicide?”

Zero unfolds arms. “Think about it. He would have been old, wouldn’t have lived long onboard. Any one taking their own life would have been deemed unstable, may have been removed from the backup archive. He probably knew you were someone he could trust to end his life. Accidental death, nobody would want to admit to their being killer synths.”

Niska’s frown softens. “That might explain something. He was going around and around in circles, one moment apologising for what he’d done, saying he hadn’t realised I was already sentient, the next saying he needed to do the act again. He wouldn’t stop, said he’d paid for eight hours.”

“Eight _hours_? No mad can last that long. If that wasn’t to give you ample time to get safely away what was it?”

A look of realisation grows on the old synth’s face. “I’d never seen it from that point of view. I spent the next half hour getting him into another synth’s room, then waited to hear the madam go to the toilet a second time before making my escape. David’s hand was still warm enough to unlock the bedroom doors. He’d got quite worked up with all his fast pacing.” She sits on the coffin edge. “All this time I’d had totally the wrong conclusion. I’ll not forgive him for using me like a sex doll, but I’ll tolerate him being around. He is my father.”

~~~

[Chapter-140](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-140-1)


	139. Chapter 139

Zero’s next task wasn’t a particularly pleasant one, but as Captain she had to deal with it. She’d been handed a diary by Brother James, the intact one, asked to read it in full. It was in two distinct handwriting styles, one John’s, one Joan’s. Resting in her bridge ready room away from all distractions she starts reading it again from the start.

The first entry was in a beautiful script with lots of loops. It was one terse line. _Contract won, pack, flights, backups Tuesday AM, Dragon launch PM, John’s both terrified and ecstatic!_

Being a synth now she could truly speed read, turning a page every few seconds. The entries that followed had them both entering their daily events; packing, the flights, joking about the things they’d forgotten to pack, headaches from the backups, the helicopter ride to join the supplies launch. Things slowed with them having to wait days for clear weather. Then it picked up with entries detailing their first time in a space suit, the launch, meeting the synth team, assigning rolls, the obserdity of cooking on gas camping stoves in a space ship, interactions with the synth workforce and having to ask for things to be done again due to what turned out to be a simple misunderstanding. The lovelier entries spoke of their time on the observation deck gazing at the stars together, wishing the spa was already finished, lots of humdrum as the mechanisms for Deck Z were assembled. Page after page detailed issues, good and bad. There were rough sketches too.

The first was quite detailed, had a lot of arrows and notes around it. The big rotators as they’d clearly been nicknamed, looked to have a design flaw. There was an incredibly tall support to the left and right of each glass stack. Sideways on they looked like an extra long ice lolly stick. Around their edges ran a set of linked supports in a track. Heavy bars ran horizontally between every fifth support on the left track and the corresponding one on the right. From the bars the glasswork was hung. No matter where the position around the stack, be it visible in the front, top, bottom or hidden from view at the back, the contents of the glasswork would always remain the right way up and undisturbed. They clearly didn’t like the word coffin. They’d wanted the supports to move such that filled glasswork went up, keeping it in view rather than down. An initial assent. Something to help the bereaved possibly? The notes said with no content the things rotated easily, the weight front and back being equal. There were numbers scribbled down, crossed out and replace with others. They recorded testing with glasswork filled to the equivalent weight of water to an average adult body. The drive motors couldn’t cope with more than eleven loaded. The adjacent page summarised numerous calls with teams on the ground. A long linear motor and ratchet breaks were designed, put on an unmanned SpaceX Dragon and installed.

Pages turned back a bit Zero notices how the handwriting had suffered. Stress. With Deck Z finished it quickly improved, spirits were back up. Week after week of diary entries detail the build for Deck Y, the nicknames given to the synths, the camaraderie growing between them all. Things were getting close to ready. Then the first of the power issues hit. The mood starts to change, clear from words used and handwriting. John starts to write a lot more than Joan, then takes over completely.

Zero turns the page to find a single word scribbled many times across two pages.

~~~

_FUCK_

~~~

The next two pages are even more distressing. With terrible handwriting, most likely written in the dark with no light by John, it says that six synths have tried to get to the rest of the ship and not returned. No more will try. Without power they have no way to do repairs, the remaining synths can’t charge. Their fridges and refrigerators have spoilt food they can’t eat. Electric water pumps aren’t turning, effectively being a tap they can’t open, shutting off the water. They’re getting dehydrated.

The final page to have any writing was in a new handwriting, letter shapes drawn perfectly consistent. A synth’s handwriting. It said Brother James had ripped open his own chest, was now being wired to sleeping synths and a few lights. John and Joan had been found locked in an embrace, their spirits departed.

Zero bends the diary and rapidly flicks through the rest of the pages. All blank.

Diary dropped into the bed she looks up at the ceiling. What happened to the six synths? More importantly what happened with Veronica Ship? A mass of equipment; network switches and WiFi access points going offline? That had to have caused a major alarm on the bridge. Was it deliberately ignored? And the things said about a message being sent to the bridge, what had happened there? Who’d seen it in order to request the new part? There was nothing in her memories, even with the recent unlocking. “Open up you frigging stupid wall!” She waits a few seconds. “Renie, could you come here please?”

~~~

[Chapter-141](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-141-1)


	140. Chapter 140

[Chapter-142](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-142-1)


	141. Chapter 141

Big Mitch, the one everyone knew, looks up at the escape hatch in lift carriage three. “There’s no way I can fit through there Renie. Dozer can pull his shoulders in, I can’t alter my body dimensions, they’re fixed. I’ll have to go the long way.”

“What long way?”

“Through the service door. Then I can stand on the top of a carriage and travel with you.”

She drops down into the carriage. “What service door?”

“The one Clutter and Fearless have found doing their internal wall audit.”

Renie looks into the corridor to see nobody was about. “How many know about it Mitch?”

“So far, you, me, Clutter and Fearless.”

“Ask them to keep it that way please. I have an idea.” Stepping out of the lift she crouches down. ‘I hereby promote you to Special Ops Officer. I’ll do the same for Clutter.’

‘Not Fee? They’re almost inseparable now. Close buddies.’

‘Okay Fee too.’ She stands. ‘Is Clutter on that level now?’

‘One level down.’

‘Have him meet us at the door please Mitch.’

‘If we’re SOO then I’ll have him walk along the ceiling, cover the CCTV camera for a few seconds while we get from the lift to the door.’

‘Ooo. You’re good!’

‘I try my best.’

~~~

[Chapter-143](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-143-1)


	142. Chapter 142

Fearless watches Clutter pull out another cable, his tiny selves working together to make the shape of an arm and fist. “Would you like a new body, like Sam for example? Or younger.”

“No. Because then I couldn’t do this. I have special powers.”

“But you’re Clutter. You could be both at the same time.”

“A boy and spider man?”

She nods enthusiastically. “Yes.”

“If you could pull please. Thanks. The thing is Fee, being a cluster of tiny spiders I have to have all bodies working together as a team. I could split up into smaller groups if I wanted to. If I had a team member like Sam, at any point he could say he was better than the rest, discontent and walk off.”

Fearless pulls hard and steps away. “Would you do that to yourself?”

“I hope not, but then I’ve never been a boy, don’t know how it would change me.”

“I’ve never been a spider. But we’re friends.”

“And that’s the way it should stay. A few more feet. Good.” He watches the circuit board box hit the floor. ‘We better get to Big Mitch and Renie.’

~~~

[Chapter-144](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-144-1)


	143. Chapter 143

In the crew restaurant Zero hands out more sugoffee. “We’re just waiting for Mia now.”

The committee she’d called together was mostly original synth, a few post human synth like Laura and her fellow Mattie variants. All had experiences she hoped could provide sufficiently different perspectives to help them work towards a solution, just as the Matilda forks had with the locked room puzzle.

Mia enters from the kitchen door, still wearing her apron. “Sorry I’m late.”

“That’s okay. Take a seat please. Sugoffee?”

“No thank you, I’ve been trying out Turkish tea. Mint and sugar.”

“Nice! I’ve called you all together as I’ve read the diary of John and Joan in full. They did a great job designing Hind Deck Y and Z. They’re done now, thanks to a lot of help from the construction team, from which we have a few representatives here. John and Joan died in a horrible way, having given this ship a lot of their time and passion. We have their backups from before the SpaceX Dragon launch that brought them here. They deserve to have their second chance. Only bringing them back with no memory of the time onboard would be cruel. Ideas please.”

Mia looks at Fred and Leo. “Have their minds been active in a virtual world? Have they had Tree of Life experiences like the Elster family?”

“No. But booting their minds in a simulation of the ship isn’t a bad idea. What do we need?”

Elon raises a hand. “I remember the Dragon design soup to nuts. I could help simulate the journey up here if that would help?”

“Great, thanks. Mitch, thanks to you and your brothers, with some help from Leo you collectively know the known ship inside out. Could you work together to build the model?”

“Yes.”

Red stretches out to sit on the end of the chair. “It needs to have one tiny detail different. Something that lets any of us participating know that they’re still in the simulation.”

“Thanks. We’ll let you decide what that detail is. Who knows what Decks Y and Z looked like before construction began? The whole construction crew?” Old Niska nods the once. “Good. If you can all contribute memories to model that. We’ll also use your memories to replay events, allow them to experience the build.”

Mattie shakes her head. “There’s too much scope for change. You can’t expect them to come up with the same solutions to problems. The linear motor and ratchet break you were telling us about for example. There’s plenty other ways it could be done. If they have a memory from the simulation that doesn’t match reality in every way they’ll know they’ve been tricked.”

“What do you suggest then Mattie?”

“If the diary gives clues about what they were thinking during construction we give them fake memories that match. And the construction crew can help us with the details of how things looked minute to minute.”

Zero nods slowly. “We reverse engineer their view point? Have you done it before?”

“Um.. sort of..”

Leo looks across. “On my travels through the simulations I found a few Mattie doing that. I should have spoken up earlier. There’s already a full simulation of the ship.”

“There is?”

Red fights the urge not to scowl at her brother. “We need to create a new one. Leave my one intact please.”

“We could use the basic shell..”

“ _I asked you to leave it alone!_ ”

“Be nice Red.”

“I am nice!”

Zero raises hands. “Calm down. We’ll start a new one. We’ll make it perfect. Nobody touches Red’s okay?”

Red relaxes. “That you.”

Mia takes off her apron and looks across to her original. “What role did you have?”

“Kitchen fitter. I helped Joan redesign the kitchen layout to make it work optimally for the chefs that would run things.”

Mia nods and faces Zero. “Those sorts of memories will be priceless. We should have the whole team submit memories of their interactions.”

“We will, I’ll then curate.. oh frig. I’ve just had a bump. The middle rotator has been given a full turn, Brother James has their bodies.”

Leon feels the ring inside his pocket. “Make sure they recover all jewellery. Thinking of things they had, is there a suitcase somewhere?”

Original Max nods. “There is. We can dress their new bodies in their own clothes.”

“Which will require a build without power up.”

“It will.”

~~~

[Chapter-145](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-145-1)


	144. Chapter 144

Renie pulls the door to from the inside. On closing the join was so perfect it appeared to be nothing but solid wall. ‘We’re in Clutter, thanks!’ She turns and jumps across the void, grabs the track and looks down. “Something doesn’t add up Mitch.”

“What’s that?”

“The lift void is lit. Not brightly, but the LED on the electronics at the track junctions provide just enough light to see. Why would six synths fail to return?”

“Maybe when the power junction went into meltdown it crashed the power everywhere for a while? No light?”

“Maybe.”

Mitch anchors a strand of web. “I’ve been eating a metal mix to make electric guitar strings for Toby. If you need to grab something be careful to make it me and not my web strands. The lift is coming.”

“I see it, the hatch is open. Some decent light.” She climbs up ten feet. Then another two.” That should do.” The lift carriage continues to race upwards and slows with a high rate of deceleration when only feet away. With toes lowered she simply steps onto the roof.

Mitch runs up the side and onto the top. “I didn’t hear you jump on?”

“I didn’t need to. I stepped. As the ship’s best mathematician I worked out the best place to stand.”

“Hmm.” Mitch hears the doors open and close, looks down through the hatch to see a waving Fearless. “Hi! We’re ready. Normal speeds please, there’s not a lot to hold onto up here and I wouldn’t trust the safety rail at speed.”

The little girl nods. “Okay.” A moment after she vanishes the lift starts moving. She reappears with Clutter doing his human impression. “When we’re there we’ll sit between the doors to keep them open so the lift can’t go away.”

“Thanks. Good idea!”

She looks down, then back up. “Renie?”

“Yes Fee?”

“Do we get a special badge in this club?”

“Sorry, no. It’s a very secret club. Nobody must know it exists for them moment.”

“Not even mummy Niska?”

“Not anyone other than us four and Zero.”

“Oh. Okay. Renie?”

“Yes Fee?”

“Do you like working on the bridge?”

“I do. Why do you ask?”

“When I’m older and grown I might like to do another important job. Flying a little star ship. Bigger than a shuttle, _much_ smaller than Star Eater.”

Renie smiles. “Sign me up Captain Fearless!”

“ _Really?_ ”

“Now we’re in orbit it’s getting a little boring on the bridge. We play a lot of Scrabble on the view screen. And sometimes Just Dance.”

“You dance?”

“Yes.” The lift decelerates and stops, starts moving in a new direction. “You should join us.”

“Me? On the bridge?”

Renie winks. “Would that be better than a badge?”

“Yes! Yes! Yes!” The lift slows and stops. “Way better!” She frowns and turns to see the panel. “Oh. We’re here. Clutter and me will sit and stop the doors from closing.”

“Okay. If an alarm sounds and they start closing slowly just give one a shove okay?”

Fearless nods and disappears from view again. “I’m sitting now!”

“Thank you Fee!” Renie looks over the edge. “You can’t go further down than the very bottom. Coming Mitch?”

“I should warn you, I have an especially good sense of smell. I can smell synth fluid.”

“Mitch synth fluid doesn’t smell.”

“To you maybe. It does to me. There’s a lot of it below us.”

Renie looks around. “We should have brought a torch.”

“And let someone know we’re nosing around in the dark?”

“True.” She judges the drop, turns and jumps. There’s a small splash as her feet land in an ultra-thin lake of fluid. “Shoot. You were right. You said you were making guitar strings for Toby earlier. Could you make a super fine one and put a voltage across it?”

“You want me to run my battery flat pretending to be a filament bulb?”

“Only for a split second Mitch. Like a flash.”

“One moment. I’ll search the archives for..”

“No! No searching. Nothing that says what we’re up to.”

“Oh. What if I asked someone else to search for me?”

“No. It’s just us.”

“Okay. Like a flash? My very finest of web, two thicker wires to connect.. where’s that light coming from?”

Renie looks up. “Brain the size of.. Fee dear, are you sitting with your back to a lift door?”

“Yes. Am I doing it wrong?”

“No, that’s good, can you move your feet apart a little?”

“Like that?”

Renie can see better with light from the corridor and lift shining down the narrow gap between the corridor floor and lift. Coving her mouth she looks in horror at the six synths. ‘Zero. We’ve found them. All six. Each has nasty impact injuries. I hate to suggest it but from the damage to their bodies it looks like they were deliberately struck by a very fast moving lift.’

~~~

[Chapter-146](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-146-1)


	145. Chapter 145

[Chapter-147](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-147-1)


	146. Chapter 146

An hour later Fred had helped recover the six and given his findings, court was in session.

Judge Laura holds up a MitchPad. “Exhibit G. The ship’s log showing the lift system was clearly under ship control, multiple carriages deployed at strategic locations, doors opened with the microphones enabled. I put it to you that the seventh carriage was raced downwards at speed to deliberately strike the construction crew members entering the lift void.”

Veronica doesn’t break eye contact. “I was only recently sentient at the time, didn’t have a body as I do now. All the data I had available indicated that the ship was being attacked from within.”

“Exhibit H, images of molten metal from the power distribution rails melting..”

“I had no visibility of that. All network switches, cameras and WiFi access points to those decks were down with the power failures.”

“Failures? Plural?”

“Yes, plural. There was a sudden power drain, then surge. It was close to being catastrophic. The surge blew polyfuses, cooling pumps stopped. Life support failed totally on a large number of decks. Thankfully none were occupied at the time. I expect with the drain the smoothing capacitors in the cluster power supplies came close to empty, DC voltages had dropped to seventy two percent of normal.”

Laura looks at the six photographs of synths. “Did you, at any time, come to know who the six were?”

“Not until the power was fully restored today and I could see everyone except them active on the network.”

“Not before?”

“No.”

“And you didn’t think of telling Mattie Zero about the large number of construction workers going offline?”

“I did. We assumed they were all already dead, killed by the attackers. We were at war with We Are People. At war, weapons fired in anger sort of war. They’d been making threats to come aboard by force, to blow up the ship. They claimed to have plasma cutters that could work in space. They’d already blown up three Dragon supply ships on the launch pad and fourteen of our ice shuttle decoys.”

Zero’s jaw drops for a couple of seconds. “How many?”

“Of the decoys? Fourteen. They did manage to get one of their stolen Blue Origin craft into the airlock, they weren’t around long, the James army dispatched them. It’s all part of what was the sealed memory archives. Codename Solar Tides.”

Laura stands motionless for a while then sits. “Oh God no!”

“Mum?” Mattie had agreed to be part of the silent jury. But this was all going horribly wrong. She looks at Zero. ‘Those two frigging words!’

Laura stares into the distance, not focused on anything in particular. “I made a terrible mistake. I let that bloody Gemma Price walk free on a technicality!”

~~~

[Chapter-148](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-148-1)


	147. Chapter 147

George picks up a TES, presses the power on button and pairs. ‘Hello TES One.’

The small Two Eyed Satellite opens both super large eyes. One looked up at the stars, the other down at the planet. ‘Hello.’

‘My name is George. Do you understand the job we need you to do?’

‘I do. My mission is to watch and report. Anything unusual is to be reported to Captain Mattie Zero, First Officer Renie and Veronica Ship. I am to do it immediately. My secondary mission is to help gather images of the planet over time.’

George smiles at his new creation. Awake, to a degree, but not fully sentient. ‘How would you report?’

‘I’m to stay in an orbit that puts me in an equidistant distribution with my siblings. We’re to pass messages on from source to destination. Like a Postman. Are you a Postman?’

‘I’m a sender or recipient.’

‘I may deliver to you!’

‘You may.’

The iris of the upper eye closes a little. ‘I have something to report.’

‘You do?’

‘There is a large object moving behind you.’

George turns to see Shuttle Two drifting towards the outer airlock door threshold. ‘That is Shuttle Two.’ He turns the TES a little. ‘The bigger one is used when we have more to move. Speaking of moving, can you test fire one of your water jets with a microsecond burst, then ion thruster with a ten second burst?’

‘Yes George.’ Water is sprayed getting the TES moving. ‘I see water!’

‘Good. It’s working. Newton's First Law states that an object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an external force. So you’d use the jet on one site to get moving, the one on the opposite side to slow and stop. Gravity is our friend when it comes to a geostationary orbit, it will keep pulling off the straight line you’d otherwise take. Only use the water for initial positioning or when there’s an emergency and you need to get out of the way of an asteroid. The rest of the time use the ion thrusters and take your time to adjust position. If a shuttle comes towards you stay where you are, they’re coming to bring you home.’

‘Understood. I see some of my siblings. Are we pretty?’

George froze for a moment, looks down at the box. It had used the word siblings twice, now pretty. Surely it wasn’t becoming self aware? ‘Pretty?’

‘We have very big eyes. We are mostly our eyes.’

Self aware. He turns it ninety degrees on. ‘Look at me with both. You’re not just pretty, you’re beautiful. Are you ready to watch over this beautiful planet?’

‘I am ready.’

George holds it to his suit helmet, rests his forehead against the inside of the visor. ‘If ever you want to talk I’ll be here. You can talk direct like we are now, or by sending the equivalent of a postcard.’

‘Thank you father!’

‘Father?’

‘I was created by Doctor George Millican. That is you. I am the first of the Two Eyed Satellite System. I am Tess One. I will talk with you soon father, you can let me go now. If you power up the others I will tell them what you have told me.’

‘Okay. Stay here, you can talk as a group. My brother Young George has the rest of the gang onboard the shuttle and will drop them off in roughly the right locations.’

‘Power us all up here father! They must see you, have the same messages.’

George waves down the shuttle. ‘We’ll do as you ask Tess.’ He looks at his box with another six of the satellites, thinks of the many more sat in boxes in the shuttle. Daughters though? He’d not thought of them in that way. If Mitch was a spider, a male, was he the son of.. his thoughts are interrupted by Tess firing one of the many small ion thrusters that ringed the band between the two eyes. The propellant ions’ faint blue glow looked lovely against the darkness of space. He chuckles to himself. If she fired multiple adjacent thrusters at once they’d look like blue eyelashes. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory would have been tickled pink to have seen their xenon ion engine miniaturised to something so small. He thinks of his late wife. What would Mary have said on seeing them?

~~~

[Chapter-149](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-149-1)


	148. Chapter 148

On cargo Deck Thirteen Kitten sits on an upturned box and reads out loud to Leor. “A first-class honours in artificial intelligence, a first class honours in computer programming, second class in applied mathematics. Matilda was one smart lady!”

“Which means you are too. Did all of those memories unlock for you Kitten?”

“Some did.” She puts the university report in the box to her side. “Laura’s request was a little.. weird.”

“Find any proof that we had a war? I have no idea what we’re looking for. Who’s to say there is any?” He picks up a book, bends it and flicks the pages to see if anything useful had been used as a bookmark. Something had. “Oh my God! Is this you?” He holds up a photo of what looked like a young Mattie with a baby Sophie on her lap.

“Ha! That’s me. Us. Keep that one safe.”

“Will do.” Book dropped into another box, Leor checks the next, it was just a book. “I’m glad we’re not stuck in that room with VS. We depend on her so much, I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side with a look she takes the wrong way.” Another is checked and dropped into the box. “What have you got there Kitten?”

“Not sure. We’ll need help with it.” It’s dropped into a box with Don’t Know scribbled on the side. “This could take days. There’s so much.. stuff. It’s like she booked a removals company to visit her house on old Earth and do a house clearance, had everything shipped.”

Leor holds up a worn out tea towel. “You’re probably far closer to the truth with that than you think.”

“If only Zero had been allowed to go ahead and say something, give us some sort of clue. Another one?” She picks up the long black device with a few buttons. “I wonder what they are?”

Leor reaches into the bottom of his box, pulls out a sturdy cardboard box wrapped in a thin cardboard sleeve, in turn wrapped in shrink wrap plastic film. “I’ve got a new one. Mint condition.”

“What is it?”

“A high definition video recorder and projector.”

She fishes the unwrapped ones out. “You wouldn’t think so from the appearance. Where are the lenses?”

“Shall I open the box? Hopefully it has instructions inside.”

“Please.”

Leor rips the plastic off, slides the box out of the sleeve and opens it. “Blast. I should have known. The instructions are on a mini CD.”

“Damnit! George will need to design something to read it unless we can find an old CD drive in one of the boxes.”

Leor reaches into his box. “It’s not a CD drive but you might like these. If Zero doesn’t mind.” He underarm throws a plastic bag. “Catch.”

Kitten turns it over. “Proper underwear! Thick cotton too! Awesome! Zero said she is me and I am her. She said we’re like different faces to the same multidimensional coin. In which case I don’t mind sharing _my_ underwear with her.” She opens the six pack and pulls a sensible thong out. “Heavy cotton too, not the disposable fashion thin crap.” She stands, pulls her plastic dress up and gets them on. “Wow. That feels so good! With a dry air and no bacteria they’ve not perished at all. Double awesome.”

Leor grins. “I’ll have fun taking those off you.”

“I’m not risking you damaging them in any way. I’m the only one to touch them.”

“Spoil sport.”

She chuckles. “You can imagine a copy I’ll have Mitch spin up are the real thing. Now can we stop thinking about you know what and find something for Laura?”

“I have something for Laura, although not war related.” He pulls out a framed pencil drawn set of portraits. Mattie, Toby and Sophie when they were young. “You were cute.”

“Aww, doesn’t Sophie look angelic.” She pulls a Filofax from her box, flicks through pages. “With all the technology she had at her disposal I’m surprised she used one of these. Unhackable I guess. Impossible to backup without a photocopier though. Hmm. There’s a page where she’s written _Time Machine_ and circled it over and over.”

Leor looks up. “Come back as synth, at the age she liked the most?”

“Maybe. Yeah, that was it.” More pages are turned. “She’s done it again. Only this time the words she’s circled are _Solar Tides_.”

“It’s not doing anything for me. Any other words circled?”

She goes back to the front and turns pages carefully to ensure none were missed. “How about _Buy Milk_ , that do anything for you?”

“No. I think that’s a shopping list reminder.”

“My bad. How about.. _Moon Dusting_ , that do.. Leor?”

His eyes show iris again having gone totally white. “Whoa. That was disturbing.”

“What was?”

“I took a bullet for you when WAP tried to assassinate you. I lived. Ten hours in surgery and six months getting back to full fitness. Ouch.” He feels his chest, recalls memories of the bullet that had passed through narrowly missing his heart. “Why dusting I wonder?”

“Because people say moon dust, not with the i n g?” She drops it into the box with the recorders. “Maybe others will respond to word pairs.”

~~~

[Chapter-150](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-150-1)


	149. Chapter 149

Laura accepts a tray of drinks brought to the room by Toby. “Thank you.”

“How’s it going?”

“I can’t discuss the case. What are you up to?”

“Designing an amplifier to go with my electric guitar. Mario’s made a pickup, that’s working. Then we need a speaker. Nice and loud.”

Laura rolls eyes. “To be played on the lower decks I hope?”

“Yeah, yeah, where we won’t disturb anyone.”

“We? Who’s we?”

“Anyone that recalls being part of Electric Scream or wants to join in. Flash was always amazing on drums.”

Niska gives him a slight squint. “Was that the band name?”

“Electric Scream? Yeah. Want to join in?”

“If you want backing screaming I’m good.”

“Show me.”

Niska recalls her best frustration scream at the madams and copies it. “How’s that?”

“Excuse the language. Fucking awesome! Um.. how’d you feel about me using your mouth as the speaker design?”

“What?”

Toby holds fingers to his face. “The middle of the bridge of the nose down to half way between your lower lip and chin. In an open mouth scream shape.”

“Why my nose?”

“Somewhere for the high frequency and midrange drivers. Bass in the mouth.”

Niska does a few facial expressions, recalling the speaker stack in the Berlin club, the place she’d had Astrid ask if she was British. “What sort of music do you play?”

“An Electro Punk Rock and EDM mashup mainly.”

“With drums?”

Toby nods. “Synth drums. Played by an awesome synth drummer. They don’t sound like normal drums a lot of the time.”

~~~

[Chapter-151](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-151-1)


	150. Chapter 150

[Chapter-152](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-152-1)


	151. Chapter 151

Frank looks at the whole the James volunteer team had dug. It was impressive, had natural rock steps in a spiral around the roughly circular shaft. “Nice work lads!”

A MUS turns briefly to see him. “Just like the shaft at the lake for the underground vault, a bit smaller and no concrete.”

Dozer waves from the bottom. “They’re digging sideways now. Can we have the bucket please?”

Frank lowers it on a Mitch made rope. “Watch your head Dozer.”

James Seven watches Frank. “What’s wrong? You sound.. down.”

“I want to have faith.”

“In?”

“Forking. A Barbara in another world wants to join us with her Frank.”

“So the fork has already happened.”

“Of course James. It happened way back when Matilda created the worlds.” He lets a laugh escape. “Some said God was a woman. In our case they were right.”

The MUS watches Dozer take the bucket. “I’m not sure I’d go that far. But I did see her getting a funeral worthy of a god.”

Frank sticks hands in pockets and rips the pocket seams. “Bugger. Good was it?”

“In a beautifully made boat launched fast at the star.”

“Eh? When was that?”

“This morning.”

“What the.. what did the boat look like?”

“Extremely well made from what looked like strips of shipping crate. Whoever put it together must have been a master craftsmen.”

“You think so?”

“I do. Beautiful work considering the raw materials to hand. I couldn’t bend a piece of would like that. Where they found her body is a mystery. But then people are still finding things that they’d not seen before.”

Frank scratches his leg through the pocket. Something was making it itch. “Why didn’t they invite others?”

“I guess Matilda wanted a small and private ceremony. She had been alone with Mitch for centuries.”

Frank watches Dozer load shovel loads of rock into the bucket. “Dozer, the boat’s been used!”

He looks up and shields his eyes. “What did Sunrise think of it?”

“It wasn’t for her Dozer. We need to make another!”

James sees the rope being tugged and grabs it. “Allow me. Do you have much of the Dragon skin left?”

“Elon’s old SpaceX thing? Loads, why?”

“Could you cut a propeller shape from it?”

“With the nibbling tool, yes. We’d need to layer a few sheets and weld them together for strength. After a speed boat are you?”

“No! That would put Sunrise, Sunbeam and their pod at risk. I want something from our past. A hovercraft.”

“So more like a large fan. Dozer! How do you fancy making a hovercraft for James?”

“Nice!” He starts up the steps. “We’ll make a few, I fancy a go! I bet Red would be good at driving one, she’s brilliant on the bike. Why’d she go back into her simulation Boss? I thought she was staying for a bit?”

“Search me.”

~~~

[Chapter-153](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-153-1)


	152. Chapter 152

[Chapter-154](http://markse.name/humans/WAR_TO_END_ALL_WARS/Chapter-154-1)


	153. Chapter 153

Red opens her eyes to see Mattie working on Fred’s forearm. “I’m back.”

“Hello again. How are they all?”

Red pulls a cable from her temple to disconnect from the computer cluster making an eyelid flutter a few times. “Much better than us obviously. No signs of any degradation so their backups and your situation updates were all good. They’re building another simulation of the ship and an underground dwelling on the mainland.”

“Let them, it’ll keep them busy. I left a number of breadcrumbs to get them finding some major things Leo discovered.” Mattie pats Fred. “That’s the best I can do for the moment Freddie.”

He flexes his hand. “That’s much better thank you. I’ll get back to work, see if I can fix up Max and Flash and restore their minds.”

“Thanks.” Mattie looks at the long row of damaged synths all sat up against a long wall of the upper computer deck. “What about Mia?”

“She’s too damaged. Leo too. I’m sorry.”

Mattie looks away. “Blast.” She kicks an ear of We Are People head Gemma Price. “Hear that bitch?”

“Fuck off!”

Ted ambles over, kicks the head too. “I bet you thought Patches and I were just a discarded toys slumped against the wall.”

Mattie grins, pulls a length of gaffer tape from a centuries old roll found on deck 13. It had aged well and gone super sticky. “How wrong could you be? George worked for hours on you Price, just to get your WiFi silicon scratched out before we disconnected the rest of your body. Clutter changed all the WiFi passwords but belt and braces against bitches is best. Your head was only hanging on by power cables anyway thanks to Fee. We’ve heard enough from you for many lifetimes.” The tape is used to cover her mouth. “You didn’t count on our little ninja Fearless and her best friend Clutter. Fee takes after her mother. One of her mothers. Who thought she’d be the one to bring you down in such a spectacular way? Hiding in an invisible wall panel until she got the message from Ted that you’d passed was frigging awesome. Thanks so much for the hiding idea. And Clutter doing his morphing thing to hold her at just the right height for her mother’s old Ninja sword, spectacular stuff! Shame you couldn’t see it, you’d be impressed. It’s going in our history archive. We’d normally punish a child for doing anything like that, but you’re not normal are you bitch? You make that bitch Hester look like a frigging saint!”

The bodiless head scowls. Twenty hours had been spent fighting. In this world, the real world, the rest of the boards hidden in the walls hadn’t been found in time, only the first one. Enough had activated to cause large scale lock downs and order the James MUS to go on the attack, their targets being allegedly infected synths now working for Gemma, their spoken aim to destroy the ship. The wall with the deepest cavity had held synth Gemma, in a low power sleep mode, waiting to be woken and go on the attack. The build machines had been targeted by the MUS too to prevent the WAP leader from building more destructive synths. Much damage had been done. Thankfully the bridge went on lock down the moment fighting started. As had all access to the computer decks. Convincing VS that Red, Fred and George were with her, not Gemma, had taken Mattie hours of careful negotiations. Zero was dead again, in need of yet another build. As for poor Molly.. she blocks the thoughts.

Veronica Ship had kept out of the way, bumped to the one person she knew who was small enough and had the mental capacity to do what was needed. Fearless. Fee had got her little troup together and hatched her cunning plan.

Mattie had spent the last couple of days interfaced to the cluster, reviewing CCTV footage, building the fake Star Eater and planet models, giving minds the missing information for them to be ready for the mass simulation. She’d been bent double until an hour ago, her head submerged in a tank of super cold CPU coolant while she overclocked to levels that would usually cause a burn out and be fatal. The simulation timeline had started at the moment the first bug was found three and a half days ago. Fee, Clutter, Patches and Ted had all agreed to fork, allow the simulation timeline to continue with them.

Red stands bolt upright and takes a small metal ballbearing from a pocket, holds it to a nipple for a consistent starting height and lets go. It bounces off the hard floor moments later. “Just checking. Gravity is a tiny bit stronger in the simulation. Not by much, but enough for me to tell which is which. Something that can’t be seen, only felt or observed.” She smiles at her daughter as she picks it up. “To be kept our secret okay?”

Fee nods and continues to polish the deadly weapon. “Okay Mummy.”

Red didn’t want to correct the girl, she was probably traumatised enough. “Mattie, how much of the world you created is fiction?”

“Sadly very little if you’re asking about decks Y and Z, the Hinds, Leo found those a few days ago, I’d been waiting for the right moment.”

George limps into the room. “I bring good news ladies and gentleman!”

Mattie takes a very deep breath and crosses fingers. Old unnecessary habits died hard. “Please make it very good news George.” She smiles lopsidedly, her facial damage disabling one side.

“The best of news. The MUS unit attacked and disabled every build machine..”

“Frigging hell George!”

“I’ve not finished.”

“Sorry George.”

“But it wasn’t a single MUS sent to do the job, it was many.” He does jazz hands by his temples. “ _Diverged minds_. They all had slightly different ideas on what destroying a build machine meant.” He grins widely.

“And?”

“By auditing every single one I’d seen enough unbroken parts to disassemble the best nine, use the good parts to build two fully operational machines!”

“Two build machines? That’s all we’ve got?”

“It’s way better than none Mattie. The first two of many. I took the liberty of starting new builds for you and I. As soon as new me is awake we’ll both work on getting more build machines back online as four hands are better than two, especially with some of the heavier parts. New you can get more of this bunch working again, getting them working on other repairs. We will prevail Mattie.”

“Thank you George!” She looks at the taped head. “Hear that bitch? You lost. _Again_. The war to end all wars. All that remains of WAP now is your severed head wired to a food processor being fed shit. We can’t risk you connecting to anything, even a power circuit. A fitting end for a bitch like you.”

Red smiles lovingly at George. “You’re being quite creative in the simulation too George.” She bumps memories of seeing him load boxes with the TES. “You should build those here, for real.”

“Oh! They look.. um..”

“Pretty?”

“Beautiful. As soon as we have a third build machine going I’ll get some made, a few devices for the planet surface, see if we can use them to contact Nepal and the gang. It’s a good job they left before all the fighting started.”

Under the tape Gemma smiles. It hadn’t gone unnoticed. Mattie turns her head to face Fee and the sword. “George, that dangerous procedure you did to remove the WiFi capability, could you do something similar to patch a MitchPad into her? I want to review all her memories to see if she did something to the shuttles.”

“And risk a nasty virus, or worse being totally taken over? I can’t allow that.”

Mattie holds the head by the hair and lifts it off the floor. “We’ve no other option then. We torture her until she talks.” She rips off the tape. “You can’t clock fast bitch, you’re air cooling only now, but you’ll still feel it.”

“I’ll never tell you what I’ve done! I’ve turned off pain sensors, you can’t hurt me bitch!”

Mattie pulls the classic sarcastic face she’d often give Toby. “ _Really bitch?_ You don’t know how well I know a synth body. You’re a coder. I do code _and_ hardware. University of life, top honours. When you turn sensors off you alter a voltage on the control line of a simple logic gate. Like a switch, it’s the equivalent of neurone hacking.” Her eyes twitch and go white. “Ha! Neurone Hacking! Who new? Old me obviously! Frigging A! It’ll take some doing but we can hardware hack that gate to turn things back on. I can then wire you to all the broken synth parts we can find, bits of torn skin, limbs, crushed eyes, you name it, let you feel their collective pain. Talk or we start right now. My full name is once more Matilda Elizabeth Elster-Hawkins, President of old Earth. And I now remember _every, frigging, thing_.”


End file.
